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Ego
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|| [[German]]: ''[[Ich{{Bottom}}
=====Jacques Lacan=====
=====''Moi'' and ''Je''=====
From [[Works of Jacques Lacan|very early on in his work]], [[Lacan]] plays on the fact that the [[German]] term which [[Freud]] uses (''[[Ego|Ich]]'') can be translated into [[French]] by two [[words]]: ''[[ego|moi]]'' (the usual term which [[French]] [[psychoanalyst]]s use for [[Freud]]'s ''[[ego|Ich]]'') and ''[[ego|je]]''.
Thus, for example, in his paper on the [[mirror stage]], [[Lacan]] oscillates between the two [[terms]].<ref>{{L}} "[[The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience|Le stade du miroir comme formateur de la fonction du Je]]," in {{Ec}} pp. 93-100 ["[[The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience]]", trans. [[Alan Sheridan]], in {{E}} pp. 1-7].</ref>
While it is difficult to discern any systematic [[distinction]] between the two terms in this paper, it is clear that they are not simply used interchangeably, and in 1956 he is still groping for a way to distinguish clearly between [[them]].<ref>{{S3}} p. 261</ref>
=====Shifter=====
It was the publication of [[Jakobson]]'s paper on [[shifter]]s in 1957 that allowed [[Lacan]] to theorise the distinction more clearly; thus, in 1960, [[Lacan]] refers to the ''[[ego|je]]'' as a [[shifter]], which designates but does not [[signify]] the [[subject]] of the [[enunciation]].<ref>{{E}} p. 298</ref>
=====Translation=====
Most [[English]] translations make [[Lacan]]'s usage clear by rendering ''[[ego|moi]]'' as "[[ego]]" and ''[[ego|je]]'' as "[[ego|I]]".
=====Ego-Psychology=====
When [[Lacan]] uses the [[Latin]] term [[ego]] (the term used to translate [[Freud]]'s ''[[ego|Ich]]'' in the [[Standard Edition]]), he uses it in the same [[sense]] as the term ''[[moi]]'', but also means it to imply a more direct reference to Anglo-American [[school]]s of [[psychoanalysis]], especially [[ego-psychology]].
=====Sigmund Freud=====
[[Freud]]'s use of the term ''[[ego|Ich]]'' ([[ego]]) is extremely [[complex]] and went through many developments throughout the course of his [[Works of Sigmund Freud|work]] before coming to denote one of the [[three]] [[agencies]] of the so-called "[[ego|structural model]]" (the [[others]] [[being]] the [[id]] and the [[superego]]).
=====Two Approaches=====
Despite the complexity of [[Freud]]'s formulations on the [[ego]], [[Lacan]] discerns two main approaches to the [[ego]] in [[Freud]]'s [[Works of Sigmund Freud|work]], and points out that they are apparently contradictory.
On the one hand, in the context of the [[theory]] of [[narcissism]], "the ego takes sides against the object", whereas on the [[other]] hand, in the context of the so-called "[[ego|structural model]]", "the ego takes sides with the object."<ref>{{L}} "[[Works of Jacques Lacan|Some Reflections on the Ego]]," ''Int. J. [[Psycho]]-[[Anal]].'', vol. 34, 1953: p. 11</ref>
The former approach places the [[ego]] firmly in the [[libido|libidinal economy]] and [[links]] it with the [[pleasure principle]], whereas the latter approach links the [[ego]] to the [[perception]]-[[consciousness]] [[system]] and opposes it to the [[pleasure principle]].
[[Lacan]] claims too that the [[apparent]] [[contradiction]] between these two accounts "[[disappears]] when we free ourselves from a naive conception of the reality-[[principle]]."<ref>{{L}} "[[Works of Jacques Lacan|Some Reflections on the Ego]]," ''Int. J. Psycho-Anal.'', vol. 34, 1953: p. 11</ref>
Thus the [[reality]] that the [[ego]] mediates with, in the latter account, is in fact made out of the [[pleasure principle]] which the [[ego]] represents in the former account.
However, it is arguable whether this argument really resolves the contradiction or whether it does not, in effect, simply privilege the former account at the expense of the latter.
=====Center of the Subject=====
[[Lacan]] argues that [[Freud]]'s discovery of the [[unconscious]] removed the [[ego]] from the central [[position]] to which [[philosophy|western philosophy]], at least since [[Descartes]], had traditionally assigned it.
[[Lacan]] also argues that the proponents of [[ego-psychology]] betrayed [[Freud]]'s radical discovery by relocating the [[ego]] as the center of the [[subject]].
In opposition to this [[school|school of thought]], [[Lacan]] maintains that the [[ego]] is not at the center, that the [[ego]] is in fact an [[object]]. '
=====Identification=====
The [[ego]] is a [[formation|construction]] which is formed by [[identification]] with the [[specular image]] in the [[Mirror stage]].
=====Alienation=====
It is thus the [[place]] where the [[subject]] becomes [[alienate]]d from himself, transforming himself into the [[counterpart]].
=====Paranoiac Structure=====
This [[alienation]] on which the [[ego]] is based is [[structure|structurally]] similar to [[paranoia]], which is why [[Lacan]] writes that the [[ego]] has a [[paranoiac]] [[structure]].<ref>{{E}} p. 20</ref>
=====Imaginary Formation=====
The [[ego]] is thus an [[imaginary]] [[formation]], as opposed to the [[subject]], which is a product of the [[symbolic]].<ref>{{E}} p. 128</ref>
=====Méconnaissance=====
Indeed, the [[ego]] is precisely a [[méconnaissance]] of the [[symbolic order]], the seat of [[resistance]].
=====Symptom=====
The [[ego]] is [[structure]]d like a [[symptom]]:
<blockquote>"The ego is [[structured]] exactly like a symptom. At the heart of [[The Subject|the subject]], it is only a privileged symptom, the [[human]] symptom par excellence, the [[mental]] [[illness]] of man."<ref>{{S1}} p. 16</ref></blockquote>
=====Analytic Treatment=====
[[Lacan]] is therefore totally opposed to the [[idea]], current in [[ego-psychology]], that the [[end of analysis|aim]] of [[psychoanalytic treatment]] is to strengthen the [[ego]].
Since the [[ego]] is "the seat of illlusions",<ref>{{S1}} p. 62</ref> to increase its strength would only succeed in increasing the [[subject]]'s [[alienation]].
=====Resistance=====
The [[ego]] is also the source of [[resistance]] to [[psychoanalytic]] [[treatment]], and thus to strengthen it would only increase those [[resistance]]s.
Because of its [[imaginary]] fixity, the [[ego]] is [[resistance|resistant]] to all [[subjective]] growth and [[change]], and to the [[dialectic|dialectical movement]] of [[desire]].
By undermining the fixity of the [[ego]], [[psychoanalytic treatment]] aims to restore the [[dialectic]] of [[desire]] and reinitiate the [[being|coming-into-being]] of the [[subject]].
=====Adaptation=====
[[Lacan]] is opposed to the [[ego-psychology]] view which takes the [[ego]] of the [[analysand]] to be the ally of the [[analyst]] in the [[treatment]].
He also rejects the view that the [[end of analysis|aim]] of [[psychoanalytic treatment]] is to promote the [[adaptation]] of the [[ego]] to [[reality]].
=====See Also=====
{{See}}
* [[Adaptation]]
* [[Alienation]]
* [[Counterpart]]
||
* [[Ego-psychology]]
* [[Enunciation]]
* [[Identification]]
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* [[Imaginary]]
* [[Mirror stage]]
* [[Paranoia]]
||
* [[Resistance]]
* [[Shifter]]
* [[Specular image]]
||
* [[Structure]]
* [[Subject]]
* [[Symptom]]
{{Also}}
=====References=====
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[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Imaginary]]
[[Category:Subject]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Terms]]
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