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 ==Little other verus Big Other==The [[symbol]] ''[[Objet (petit) a|a]]'' stands for the first [[letter]] of the [[word]] "''[[autre]]''" ("[[other]]"). It is always lower case to denote the "[[little other]] rather than the "big Other]]" [[symbolized]] by the capital ''A''[''utre'']. The use of the lower case marks the distinction between this [[object]] and the "[[big Other]]" [[symbolized]] by the capital ''A''[''utre''].  Unlike the ig Other, a exists within a relationship with the ego and is described as belonging ot the order of the imaginary. The earliest references to 'a' appear in the 1950s, and it initially designates the eog, with 'a' designating the specular image of the mirror-phase and 'A' the unconscious or the discourse of the Other. 'a' is imagined by the subject to be an object that can be separated from the body in such a way as to take on an existence of its own. from the 1960s onwards, a comes to mean an object of desire that can never actually be atained.  to that extent, it can be viewed as the cause of desire rather than a concrete object that is actually sought by the drives. Lacan later describes it as an object-cause, defined as any object of desire that sets the drives in motion. It can be a source of anxiety as wel as a promise of pleasur.e Rather than seekign to attain or possess it, the drives endlessly circle around it.  ===Translation===The term -- which can be translated as "[[object small a]]" -- often remains untranslated. The term -- which can be translated as "[[object small a]]" -- is often left in the [[French]] at [[Lacan]]'s insistence. This term has sometimes been translated into English as 'object (little) a', but Lacan insisted that it should remain untranslated, "thus acquiring, as it were, the status of an algebraic sign."<ref>Sheridan, Alan. "Translator's note." {{E}} p. 1977vii-xii</ref> ===Algebraic Sign===