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Ego
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=====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=====
=====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.
=====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]].
=====Alienation=====
It is thus the [[place ]] where the [[subject]] becomes [[alienate]]d from himself, transforming himself into the [[counterpart]].
=====Paranoiac Structure=====
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]].
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]].
