Optical Schema

Lacan borrowed his optical schema from physics. He used it to illustrate the role of the real Other in constructing both the body and the specular image as the model for the ego. Lacan introduced this schema in his seminar of 1953-1954, on Freud's Papers on Technique. He took his cue from Freud's reference to an optical schema in The Interpretation of Dreams (Freud, 1900a, p. 536; Lacan, 1953-54, 74-76)