Ego-ideal
ego-ideal (idÈal du moi) In Freud's writings it is difficult to discern
any systematic distinction between the three related terms 'ego-ideal' (Ich-
ideal), 'ideal ego' (Ideal Ich), and superego (‹ber-Ich), although neither are
the terms simply used interchangeably. Lacan, however, argues that these three
'formations of the ego' are each quite distinct concepts which must not be
confused with one another.
In his pre-war writings Lacan is mainly concerned to establish a distinction
between the ego-ideal and the superego, and does not refer to the ideal ego.
Although both the ego-ideal and the SUPEREGo are linked with the decline of the
Oedipus complex, and both are products of identification with the father,
Lacan argues that they represent different aspects of the father's dual role.
The superego is an unconscious agency whose function is to repress sexual
desire for the mother, whereas the ego-ideal exerts a conscious pressure
towards sublimation and provides the coordinates which enable the subject
to take up a sexual position as a man or woman (Lacan, 1938: 59-62).
In his post-war writings Lacan pays more attention to distinguishing the ego-
ideal from the ideal ego (Fr. moi idÈal. Note: at one point, in 1949, Lacan uses
the term je-idÈal to render Freud's Ideal-Ich [E, 2]; however, he soon abandons
this practice and for the rest of his work uses the term moi idÈal.). Thus in the
1953-4 seminar, he develops the OPTICAL MODEL to distinguish between these
two formations. He argues that the ego-ideal is a symbolic introjection,
whereas the ideal ego is the source of an imaginary projection (see S8, 414).
The ego-ideal is the signifier operating as ideal, an internalised plan of the law,
the guide governing the subject's position in the symbolic order, and hence
anticipates secondary (Oedipal) identification (Sl, 141) or is a product of that
identification (Lacan, 1957-8). The ideal ego, on the other hand, originates in
the specular image of the mirror stage; it is a promise of future synthesis
towards which the ego tends, the illusion of unity on which the ego is built.
The ideal ego always accompanies the ego, as an ever-present attempt to
regain the omnipotence of the preoedipal dual relation. Though formed in
primary identification, the ideal ego continues to play a role as the source of all
secondary identifications (E, 2). The ideal ego is written i(a) in Lacanian
algebra, and the ego ideal is written I(A).
def
Ego-Ideal (Freud): The ideal of perfection that the ego strives to emulate. For Freud, the ego-ideal is closely bound up with our super-ego. The super-ego is "the vehicle of the ego ideal by which the ego measures itself, which it emulates, and whose demand for ever greater perfection it strives to fulfil" ("New Introductory Lectures" 22.65). Given the intimate connection of the super-ego to the Oedipus complex, the ego-ideal is likely "the precipitate of the old picture of the parents, the expression of admiration for the perfection which the child then attributed to them" ("New Introductory Lectures" 22.65). It is also tied up with childhood narcissism (the belief in one's own perfection), which in adulthood can take as its substitute the perfection of the ego-ideal. Ego-Ideal and "ideal ego"(Lacan): Lacan makes a distinction between the "ideal ego" and the "ego ideal," the former of which he associates with the imaginary order, the latter of which he associates with the symbolic order. Lacan's "ideal ego" is the ideal of perfection that the ego strives to emulate; it first affected the subject when he saw himself in a mirror during the mirror stage, which occurs around 6-18 months of age (see the Lacan module on psychosexual development). Seeing that image of oneself established a discord between the idealizing image in the mirror (bounded, whole, complete) and the chaotic reality of the one's body between 6-18 months, thus setting up the logic of the imaginary's fantasy construction that would dominate the subject's psychic life ever after. For Lacan, the "ego-ideal," by contrast, is when the subject looks at himself as if from that ideal point; to look at oneself from that point of perfection is to see one's life as vain and useless. The effect, then, is to invert one's "normal" life, to see it as suddenly repulsive.