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<BR><BR><span style="line-height:1.5em;font-size:1.1em">[[Lacan]] deliberates on the [[distinction]] made in his [[Seminar I|first seminar]] between [[discourse]] [[analysis]] and the [[analysis]] of the [[ego]], both in relation to [[psychoanalytical theory]] and [[practice]]. He claims that "[[analysis]] deals with [[resistance]]s." He reviews [[three]] works by [[Freud]]: <i>[[Beyond the Pleasure Principle]]</i>, on the [[death instinctdrive]]; <i>[[Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego]]</i>; and <i>[[The Ego and the Id]]</i>.</span>

<span style="line-height:1.5em;font-size:1.1em">[[Consciousness]] is [[transparent]] to itself, whereas the [[I]] (<i>[[je]]</i>) or '[[ego]]' is not. The [[I]] is [[outside]] the field of [[consciousness]] and its [[certainties]] (where we [[represent]] ourselves as [[ego]], where something [[exist]]s exists 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]].</span>

<span style="line-height:1.5em;font-size:1.1em">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 [relationship] 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."</span>

<span style="line-height:1.5em;font-size:1.1em">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>.</span>

<span style="line-height:1.5em;font-size:1.1em">In "[[The Dream of Irma's Injection]]" the most [[tragic]] [[moment]] occurs in the confrontation with the [[Real]]. The - the ultimate [[Real]], "something in front of which [[word]]s words stop." "In the [[dream]] the [[unconscious]] is what is [[outside]] all of the [[subject]]ssubjects. The [[structure]] of the [[dream]] shows that the [[unconscious]] is not the [[ego]] of the [[dream]]erdreamer." "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]]."</span>

<span style="line-height:1.5em;font-size:1.1em">In [[Seminar on 'The Purloined Letter'|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|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."</span>

<span style="line-height:1.5em;font-size:1.1em">"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|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|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|the symbolic]] circuit, each of them becomes someone else."</span>

<span style="line-height:2.0em;font-size:1.1em">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."</span>

<span style="line-height:2.0em;font-size:1.1em">The <i>[[Schema L]]</i>, systematized in the <i>La [[Seminar on 'The Purloined Letter'|Seminar on 'The Purloined Letter' (La lettrevolée)]] volée</i> ([[Écrits]], 1966), is elaborated in this [[seminar]]. A four-term [[structure]] maps the [[Real]], the [[Imaginary]] and the [[Symbolic]] as replacing the second [[Freud]]ian [[Freudian topography]]: [[ego]] / <i>[[id]]</i> / [[superego]]. Two diagonals intersect, while the [[imaginary]] rapport [[links]] <i>[[a]]</i> (the [[ego]]) to <i>[[a']]</i> (the [[other]]), the line going from <i>[[S]]</i> (the [[subject]], the [[Freud]]ian Freudian <i>[[id]]</i>) to <i>[[A]]</i> (the [[Other]]) is interrupted by the first one. The [[Other]] is difficult to define: it is the [[place]] of [[language]] where [[subjectivity]] is constituted; it is the place of [[primal]] [[speech]] linked to the [[Father]]; it is the place of the absolute [[Other]], the [[mother]] in the [[demand]]. The [[Other]] makes the [[subject]] without him [[knowing]] it. With [[Lacan]] , in [[Freud]]'s <i>[[Wo Es war, soll Ich werden]]</i>, <i>[[Es]]</i> is the [[subject]]. It [[knows]] him or doesn't. The further, more exacting insight, is [[It]] speaks or doesn't. At the [[end of analysis]], it is [[It]] who must be called on to [[speak]], and to enter in relation with real [[Others]]. Where <i>[[S]]</i> was, there the <i>[[Ich]]</i> should be.</span>

[[Category:Seminars]] [[Category:Jacques Lacan]]