Difference between revisions of "Imaginary"
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| + | In the [[Jacques Lacan:Bibliography|work]] of [[Jacques Lacan]], the [[real]], the [[symbolic]], and the [[imaginary]] are a central [[order|set of references]]. The [[imaginary]] is the [[order|field]] of the [[ego]]. | ||
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| [[French]]: ''[[imaginaire]]'' | | [[French]]: ''[[imaginaire]]'' | ||
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==Jacques Lacan== | ==Jacques Lacan== | ||
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=====History===== | =====History===== | ||
[[Lacan]]'s use of the term "[[imaginary]]" as a substantive dates back to [[{{Y}}|1936]].<ref>{{Ec}} p. 81</ref> The term relates to the [[dual relation]] between the [[ego]] and the [[specular image]]. From [[{{Y}}|1953]] on, the [[imaginary]] becomes one of the [[order|three orders]] which constitute the [[order|tripartite scheme]] at the center of [[Lacan]]ian thought, being opposed to the [[symbolic]] and the [[real]]. | [[Lacan]]'s use of the term "[[imaginary]]" as a substantive dates back to [[{{Y}}|1936]].<ref>{{Ec}} p. 81</ref> The term relates to the [[dual relation]] between the [[ego]] and the [[specular image]]. From [[{{Y}}|1953]] on, the [[imaginary]] becomes one of the [[order|three orders]] which constitute the [[order|tripartite scheme]] at the center of [[Lacan]]ian thought, being opposed to the [[symbolic]] and the [[real]]. | ||
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<!-- In his 1936 essay "Au-delà du 'principe de réalité"' (Beyond the reality principle), Lacan noted that Freud discovered a meaning in patients' complaints that other physicians considered imaginary and thus illusory. In his first reading of Freud's work, Lacan emphasized the notion of the image by highlighting its function: reflecting the subject's discrete behaviors in unified images. In the mirror stage, the subject identifies with these images and develops an ego concept in relation to another. --> | <!-- In his 1936 essay "Au-delà du 'principe de réalité"' (Beyond the reality principle), Lacan noted that Freud discovered a meaning in patients' complaints that other physicians considered imaginary and thus illusory. In his first reading of Freud's work, Lacan emphasized the notion of the image by highlighting its function: reflecting the subject's discrete behaviors in unified images. In the mirror stage, the subject identifies with these images and develops an ego concept in relation to another. --> | ||
===Ego=== | ===Ego=== | ||
Revision as of 14:21, 7 November 2006
In the work of Jacques Lacan, the real, the symbolic, and the imaginary are a central set of references. The imaginary is the field of the ego.
| French: imaginaire |
| German: Imaginäre |
Jacques Lacan
Ego
The imaginary order is based on the formation of the ego in the mirror stage by identification with the counterpart (or specular image). The dual relation between the ego and the counterpart is characterized by alienation and narcissism.
Image
The imaginary is the realm of image and imagination, deception and lure. The principal illusions of the imaginary are those of wholeness, synthesis, autonomy, duality and, above all, similarity.
Psychology
Although the imaginary is the dimension of the human subject which is most closely linked to ethology and animal psychology, it is nevertheless structured by the symbolic, and this means that "in man, the imaginary relation has deviated [from the realm of nature]."[1]
Criticism
Lacan accused the major psychoanalytic schools of reducing psychoanalysis to the imaginary order.
See Also
References
- ↑ Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book III. The Psychoses, 1955-56. Trans. Russell Grigg. London: Routledge, 1993. p. 253
Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book II. The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, 1954-55. Trans. Sylvana Tomaselli. New York: Nortion; Cambridge: Cambridge Unviersity Press, 1988. p. 210
