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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]].{| align="[[right]]" style="line-height:2.0em;margin-left:10px;align:right;text-align:right;background-color:#fcfcfc;border:1px solid #aaa"

[[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]]. --><!--It took Lacan twenty years to restore the imaginary to its [[full]] [[place]] alongside the real and [[the symbolic]], which he did within the topic of the Borromean [[knot]] (a set of [[three]] interlinked rings that come apart if any one is removed).

<!-- 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=====

The [[imaginary|imaginary order]] is based on the [[mirror stage]], whereby the [[ego]] is constituted by [[identification]] with the [[other|little other]]. The [[ego]] is [[formation|formed]] by [[identification|identifying]] with the [[counterpart]] or [[specular image]]. Thus, [[identification]] is an important aspect of the [[imaginary|imaginary order]]. The [[ego]] and the [[counterpart]] [[form ]] the prototypical [[dual relation]]ship, and are interchangeable. identification is essential to the structure of the imaginary [[order ]] and to the [[development ]] of the human ego.</i> The basis of the [[imaginary|imaginary order]] is the [[mirror stage]], in which the [[subject]] [[identification|identifies]] with its [[counterpart]] or [[specular image] and develops an ego concept in relation to another.

=====Image=====

The [[imaginary]] exerts a [[captation|captivating power]] over the [[subject]], founded in the almost hypnotic effect of the [[specular image]]. The [[imaginary]] is thus rooted in [[subject]]'s [[relationship ]] to his own [[body ]] (or rather to the [[image]] of his body). This [[captation|captivating/capturing power]] is both [[seductive]] (the [[imaginary]] is manifest­ed above all on the [[sexual ]] plane, in such forms as sexual display and courtship [[rituals]])<ref>{{L}} "[[Situation de la psychanalyse et formation du psychanalyste en 1956]]." ''[[Écrits]]''. [[Paris]]: Seuil, 1966 [1956b]: 272</ref> and disabling: it imprisons the [[subject]] in series of static fixations.

=====Psychology=====Although the The [[imaginary]] is the [[dimension ]] of the [[human]] [[subject]] which is most closely linked to [[ethology]] and [[animal]] [[psychology]], yet it is nevertheless [[structure]]d by the [[symbolic]], and this means that "in man, the imaginary relation has deviated [from the realm of nature]."<ref>{{S3}} p. 253<BR>{{S2}} p. 210</ref>

All attempts to explain [[human]] [[subjectivity]] in [[terms ]] of [[animal]] [[psychology]] are thus limited to the [[imaginary]]. Although the [[imaginary]] represents the closest point of contact between [[human]] [[subjectivity]] and [[animal]] [[ethology]],<ref>{{S2}} p. 166</ref> it is not simply identical; the [[imaginary|imaginary order]] in [[human]] [[being]]s is [[structure]]d by the [[symbolic]], and this means that "in man, the imaginary relation has deviated [from the realm of nature]."<ref>{{S2}} p. 210</ref>

=====Criticism=====

[[Lacan]] accused the major [[school|psychoanalytic schools]] of his day of reducing [[psychoanalysis]] to the [[imaginary|imaginary order]]: these [[psychoanalysts ]] made [[identification]] with the [[analyst]] into the [[goal ]] of [[treatment|analysis]], and reduced [[treatment|analysis]] to a [[dual relation]]ship.<ref>{{E}} p. 246-7</ref> [[Lacan]] sees this as a [[complete ]] [[betrayal ]] of [[psychoanalysis]], a deviation which can only eveer succeed in increasing the [[alienation]] of the [[subject]].

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