Formation
The 'formations' of the unconscious are those phenomena in which the laws of the unconscious are most clearly visible. The joke, the dream, the symptom, and the lapsus ('parapraxis'). The fundamental mechanisms involved in the formations of the unconscious were referred to by Freud as the 'laws of the unconscious', condensation and displacement, which Lacan redefines as metaphor and metonymy.
The 'formation of analysts' (formation des analystes) means the training of psychoanalysts. The 'formations of the ego' are the three elements related to the ego: the superego, the ideal ego, and the ego-ideal.
Mirror Stage and Ego Formation
The 'fragmented body' is closely linked to the concept of the mirror stage.
In the mirror stage the infant sees its reflection in the mirror as a whole/synthesis, and this perception causes, by contrast, the perception of its own body (which lacks motor coordination at this stage) as divided and fragmented.
The anxiety provoked by this feeling of fragmentation fuels the identification with the specular image by which the ego is formed.
