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=====Jacques Lacan=====
The term "[[subject]]" is [[present]] from the very earliest of [[Lacan]]'s [[psychoanalytic]] writings,<ref>{{1932}}</ref> and from 1945 on it occupies a central part in [[Lacan]]'s [[work]].
=====Human Being=====
In [[Lacan]]'s pre-war papers, the term "[[subject]]" seems to mean no more than "human being."<ref>{{Ec}} p. 75</ref>
=====Analysand=====
The term is also used to refer to the [[analysand]].<ref>{{Ec}} p. 83</ref>
=====Three Kinds=====
In 1945, [[Lacan]] distinguishes between [[three]] kinds of [[subject]].
# Firstly, there is the impersonal [[subject]], independent of the [[other]], the pure [[grammatical]] [[subject]], the noetic [[subject]], the "it" of "it is known that." # Secondly, there is the anonymous reciprocal [[subject]] who is completely equal to and substitutable for any other, and who recognises himself in equivalence with the other. # Thirdly, there is the personal [[subject]], whose uniqueness is constituted by an act of [[self]]-[[affirmation]].<ref>{{Ec}} p.207-8</ref> It is always this [[third]] [[sense]] of the [[subject]], the [[subject]] in his uniqueness, that constitutes the focus of [[Lacan]]'s work. == ===Subject and Ego=====In 1953, [[Lacan]] establishes a [[distinction]] between the [[subject]] and the [[ego]] which will remain one of the most fundamental distinctions throughout the rest of his work. Whereas the [[ego]] is part of the [[imaginary order]], the [[subject]] is part of the [[symbolic]]. Thus the [[subject]] is not simply equivalent to a [[conscious]] sense of [[agency]], which is a mere [[illusion]] produced by the [[ego]], but to the [[unconscious]]; [[Lacan]]'s "[[subject]]" is the [[subject]] of the [[unconscious]]. =====Sigmund Freud=====[[Lacan]] argues that this distinction can be traced back to [[Freud]]: <blockquote>"[Freud] wrote ''[[Das Ich]] und [[das Es]]'' in [[order]] to maintain this fundamental distinction between the [[true]] [[subject of the unconscious]] and the ego as constituted in its nucleus by a series of [[alienating]] identifications.<ref>{{E}} p.128</ref></blockquote> Although [[psychoanalytic treatment]] has powerful effects on the [[ego]], it is the [[subject]], and not the [[ego]], on which [[psychoanalysis]] primarily operates. =====Alternative Meanings=====[[Lacan]] plays on the various [[meanings]] of the term "[[subject]]." In [[linguistics]] and [[logic]], the [[subject]] of a proposition is that [[about]] which something is predicated, and is also opposed to the "[[object]]."<ref>{{L}} "[[Works of Jacques Lacan|Proposition du 9 octobre 1967 sur le psychanalyste de l'École]]," 1967, ''[[Scilicet]]'', no. 1 ([[1968]]) p. 19</ref> [[Lacan]] plays on the [[philosophical]] nuances of the latter term to emphasise that his [[concept]] of the [[subject]] concerns those aspects of the [[human]] [[being]] that cannot (or must not) be objectified (reified, reduced to a [[thing]]), nor be studied in an '[[objective]]' way. <blockquote>"What do we call a subject? Quite precisely, what in the [[development]] of objectivation, is [[outside]] of the object."<ref>{{S1}} p. 194</ref></blockquote> =====Language=====References to [[language]] come to dominate [[Lacan]]'s concept of the [[subject]] from the mid-1950s on. He distinguishes the [[subject]] of the [[statement]] from the [[subject]] of the [[enunciation]] to show that because the [[subject]] is essentially a [[speaking]] [[being]] (''[[parlêtre]]''), he is inescapably [[divided]], [[castrated]], [[split]]. In the early 1960s [[Lacan]] defines the [[subject]] as that which is represented by a [[signifier]] for [[another]] [[signifier]]; in other [[words]], the [[subject]] is an effect of [[language]].<ref>{{Ec}} p. 835</ref>. =====Philosophy and Law=====Besides its [[place]] in [[linguistics]] and [[logic]], the term "[[subject]]" also has [[philosophical]] and [[legal]] connotations. In [[philosophical]] [[discourse]], it denotes an [[individual]] [[consciousness|self-consciousness]], whereas in [[legal]] [[discourse]], it denotes a person who is under the [[power]] of another (e.g. a person who is subject to the sovereign). The fact that the term possesses both these meanings means that it perfectly illustrates [[Lacan]]'s [[thesis]] about the determination of [[consciousness]] by the [[symbolic order]]. <blockquote>"The subject is a subject only by virtue of his subjection to the field of the Other."<ref>{{S2}} p. 188</ref></blockquote> The term also functions in [[legal]] [[discourse]] to designate the support of [[action]]; the [[subject]] is one who can be held [[responsibility|responsible]] for his [[act]]s. =====Descartes's ''Cogito''=====The [[philosophical]] connotations of the term are particularly emphasised by [[Lacan]], who [[links]] it with [[Descartes]]'s [[philosophy]] of the ''[[cogito]]'': <blockquote>in the term ''subject'' . . . I am not designating the [[living]] substratum needed by this phenomenon of the subject, nor any sort of substance, nor any being possessing [[knowledge]] in his pathos . . . nor even some incarnated [[logos]], but the [[Cartesian]] subject, who appears at the [[moment]] when [[doubt]] is recognised as [[certainty]].<ref>{{S11}} p. 126</ref></blockquote> =====Subject of the Unconscious=====The fact that the [[symbol]] of the [[subject]], '''S''', is a homophone of the [[Freud]]'s term ''[[Es]]'' ('[[Id]]') illustrates that for [[Lacan]], the true [[subject]] is the [[subject]] of the [[unconscious]]. In 1957 [[Lacan]] strikes through this [[symbol]] to produce the [[symbol]] '''$''', the "[[subject|barred subject]]," thus illustrating the fact that the [[subject]] is essentially [[divided]]. =====See Also====={{See}}* [[Analysand]]* ''[[Cogito]]''||* [[Enunciation]]* [[Ego]]||* [[Language]]* [[Law]]||* [[Linguistics]]* [[Philosophy]]||* [[Split]]* [[Statement]]||* [[Symbol]]* [[Unconscious]]{{Also}} =====References=====<div style="font-size:11px" class="references-small">
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[[Category:Jacques Lacan]][[Category:Subject]]
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[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
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