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[[Lacan ]] deliberates on the [[distinction ]] made in his 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 [[resistances]]." He reviews [[three ]] works by [[Freud]]: <i>Beyond the [[Pleasure ]] [[Principle]]</i>, on the [[death ]] [[instinct]]; <i>Group [[Psychology ]] and the Analysis of the Ego</i>; and <i>The Ego and [[the Id]]</i>.<br>

[[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 [[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.<br>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."<br>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>.<br>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 ]] stop." "In the dream the unconscious is what is outside all of the [[subjects]]. The [[structure ]] of the dream shows that the unconscious is not the ego of the dreamer." "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."<br>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."<br>"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."<br> 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 dimension is the only dimension that cures, "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 realised."<br><br>

The <i>[[Schema ]] L</i>, systematized in <i>La [[lettre ]] 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 [[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 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.

<b>Le séminaire, Livre II: Le moi dans la théorie de Freud et dans la [[technique ]] de la [[psychanalyse]]</b><br>[[French]]: (texte établi par Jacques-[[Alain ]] [[Miller]]), [[Paris]]: Seuil, 1977.<br>[[English]]: <b>Book II: The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of [[Psychoanalysis]]</b> (edited by [[Jacques-Alain Miller]]), New York: Norton, 1988.

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