Jacques Marie Émile Lacan


Steven Rowland, Alayna Sharp, Summer
Cochenour
 The Imaginary

 The Imaginary is the realm of pre-verbal images and
fantasies.
 There are no words in the Imaginary; it is the realm
in which the child has not yet learned language.
 Because there is no language, the child does not yet
have categories of knowing things or definitions for
knowing things.
 The Mirror Stage

 The Mirror Stage occurs in the Imaginary realm, when
the child is between 6 and 18 months. The child sees its
reflection in a mirror and recognizes that it is separate
from its surroundings.
 One must remember that this is a visual recognition
because this happens before the child has learned
language.
 The child recognizes itself as separate in the mirror but it
is a misrecognition. It is a misrecognition because the
mirror gives the child an illusion of autonomy and
wholeness.
 The Symbolic

 The Symbolic is that realm in which the subject has
language.
 The Symbolic realm is the realm of language and
culture.
 The child is ushered into the Symbolic realm with the
resolution of its Oedipus Complex.
 The Oedipus Complex

 Linguistic transaction; paraphrase: the child
identifies with its mother, the mother desires the
father and then the child competes with the father for
the mother’s affections.
 The family is a set of symbolic relations that always
transcend the actual persons who are identified by
means of them.
 This resolution is the child’s entrance into the
Symbolic realm.
 The Name of the Father

 The Name of the Father is not the actual person but
is the authority figure.
 It must also be understood that The Name of the
Father is not necessarily a male position, females can
also occupy the position of The Name of the Father.
 Law of the Father.
 The Phallus

 The phallus is The Name of the Father that ushers
the child into the Symbolic realm.
 The phallus is the primary signifier in Lacan’s
theory. It stands for both power and the lack of
power.
 It is only in the Symbolic order that the phallus is
known because the phallus is a signifier; signifiers
are only known with the subject’s entrance into
language.
 The Lack

 Lack first begins when an infant is separated from
the mother at birth.
 There will be other objects besides the mother that
get value when the subject identifies an object as that
missing component of its self; this is the Lack.
 The Real

 Lacan likens it to death because it is the only thing
that we know is outside of the Symbolic realm; it is
that which is beyond language.
 The Real is what we cannot define but it is also NOT
the Imaginary.
 The Signifier

 A signifier is a physical medium (such as a sound,
symbol, image) that expresses meaning.
 Signifiers are any system of representation
 Signifiers are arbitrary and conventional
 Shifting Signifier

 A shifting signifier is a signifier that represents two
or more meanings. The meaning of a signifier can
change depending on context.
 Citations

 "Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy." Lacan, Jacques. N.p., n.d.
Web. 28 Oct. 2013. <http://www.iep.utm.edu/lacweb/>.
 "Jacques Marie Émile Lacan - Biography." Jacques Lacan. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.
<http://www.egs.edu/library/jacques- lacan/biography/>.
 Johnston, Adrian, Johnston,. "Jacques Lacan." Stanford
University. Stanford University, 02 Apr. 2013. Web. 28 Oct.
2013. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/lacan/>.
 "Psychoanalysis." PSYCHOANALYSIS. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct.
2013.
<http://flash.lakeheadu.ca/~engl4904/psychoanalysis.ht
ml>.