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[[Consciousness]] is [[transparent]] to itself, whereas the [[I]] (<i>[[je]]</i>) is not. The [[I]] is [[outside]] the field of [[consciousness]] and its [[certainties]] (where we [[represent]] ourselves as [[ego]], where something [[exist]]s and is expressed by the [[I]]). But it is not enough to say that "the [[I]] of the [[unconscious]] is not the [[ego]]" since we tend to think this [[I]] as the [[true]] [[ego]]. [[Lacan]] proceeds to re-assert the locus of the [[ego]] and reinstate the [[excentricity]] of the [[subject]] vis-à-vis the [[ego]].
The [[ego]] is a particular [[object]] within the experience of the [[subject]], with a certain function: an [[imaginary]] one. When in the [[specular image]] the [[ego]] is recognized as such by the [[subject]], this [[image]] becomes [[self-conscious]]. "The [[mirror stage]] is based on the rapport between, on one hand, a certain level of tendencies which are experienced as [[disconnected ]] and, on the other, a [[unity ]] with which it is merged and paired. In this [[unity ]] the [[subject ]] knows itself as [[unity]], but as an [[alienated]], virtual one."
However, for a [[consciousness ]] to perceive another [[consciousness]], the [[symbolic order ]] must intervene on the [[system ]] determined by the [[image ]] of the [[ego]], as a dimension of <i>[[re-connaissance]]</i>.
In "[[The Dream of Irma's Injection]]" the most [[tragic]] moment occurs in the confrontation with the [[Real]]. The ultimate [[Real]], "something in front of which words [[word]]s stop." "In the [[dream ]] the [[unconscious ]] is what is [[outside ]] all of the subjects[[subject]]s. The [[structure ]] of the [[dream ]] shows that the [[unconscious ]] is not the [[ego ]] of the dreamer[[dream]]er." "This [[subject ]] [[outside ]] the [[subject ]] designates the whole [[structure ]] of the [[dream]]." "What is at stake in the function of the [[dream ]] is beyond the [[ego]], what in the [[subject ]] is of the [[subject ]] and not of the [[subject]], that is the [[unconscious]]."
In his analysis of [[Poe]]'s <i>[[Purloined Letter]]</i>, [[Lacan]] speaks of "an other beyond all subjectivity." The question concerns the "confrontation of the subject beyond the ego with the <i>Id</i>, the <i>quod</i> (what-is-it?) which seeks to come into being in analysis."
"The purloined letter is synonymous with the original, radical subject of the unconscious. The symbol is being displaced in its pure state: one cannot come into contact with without being caught in its play. There is nothing in destiny, or casualty, which can be defined as a function of existence. When the characters get hold of this letter, something gets hold of them and carries them along. At each stage of the symbolic transformation of the letter, they will be defined by their position in relation to this radical object. This position is not fixed. As they enter into the necessity peculiar to the letter, they each become functionally different to the essential reality of the letter. For each of them the letter is the unconscious, with all its consequences, namely that at each point of the symbolic circuit, each of them becomes someone else."
When [[Jean Hyppolite]] asks: "What use does the [[Symbolic]] have?" [[Lacan]] answers: "The [[Symbolic]], the [[Imaginary]] and the [[Real]] are useful in giving its meaning to a particularly pure [[symbolic]] experience, that of [[analysis]]." Since the [[symbolic|symbolic dimension]] is the only dimension that [[cure]]s, "The [[symbolic]] [[order]] is simultaneously non-being and insisting to be, that is what [[Freud]] has in mind when he talks about the [[death]] [[instinct]] as being what is most fundamental: a [[symbolic order]] in travail, in the process of coming, insisting in being realized."
