Jacques Lacan

Imaginary 1. How we see ourselves in the first-person; parts of the whole do not work together, but we strive to be(come) … 2. The image others see or how we want to see ourselves in the third- person; specular; we see our distorted “mirror” image

Specular identification is how others see us and/or how we wish to be seen. It causes aggression between the lived body and the ideal body because of the painful split where the two bodily perceptions cannot coincide

Dual relation represents the moment when, once a side is recognized, the other disappears, loses recognition and ceases to exist. This causes a struggle for recognition and causes destruction or enslavement of the other (Hegelian concept). “The Imaginary strives for identity, completeness, wholeness, and mastery, but is beset by an internal instability because we can never coincide with the specular image with which we have identified.” - Levi R. Bryant

“Where the Imaginary creates the stark alternative of “me or you”, the symbolic allows exchange to take place between subjects and the world to be carved up in terms of what is given to me and what is given to you.” - Levi R. Bryant Symbolic – encompasses difference and the Law Difference – the lack the creates desire that can never be fulfilled The Law – what you cannot have

The Real is that which does not lack, it is pure plenitude and the world prior to being split up by the Symbolic. The Real is also that which always returns to its place. It is repetition or perpetual return. The Real is the impossible. It is the constitutive antagonisms and deadlocks that cannot be resolved by the Symbolic and represents formal paradoxes.

Lacan’s Borromean Knot

Meaning (sentido) – If meaning is the result of the overlap between the Imaginary and the Symbolic, then this is because meaning strives for the identity of terms and a cohesive sense of unity and totality in a text. JA (G): Jouissance of the Other – the repetition of a trauma that perpetually subverts pleasure and happiness and from which we cannot escape; what causes our desire, not the thing we say we want. It’s why we’re not simply creatures of need (beings that could be satisfied and where the pleasure principle would reign), but are desiring creatures. J (gø): Jouissance of the Phallus – The Real, in Lacanese, is the impossible. The symbolic is the domain of the “hole” (it is the manner in which the signifier introduces absence into the world). If it is true that all meaning is phallic, this would entail that meaning is the attempt to totalize the symbolic order riddled with contradictions and antagonisms (the real) in a single, coherent order. Phallic jouissance would be the perpetual attempt to pin everything down in a coherent order

a: surplus jouissance (objet a) – the trace of a remainder or loss that takes place when we enter the symbolic order or are alienated in the signifier; the world kills the thing because it introduces absence into the world. With the word, it is now possible to refer to things that are absent and that don’t even exist; that experience of “it not being it” is what generates surplus-jouissance. jouissance is the repetition of a trauma that perpetually subverts pleasure and happiness and from which we cannot escape; that which derails and subverts our aims, plans, and pleasures, not something that we “enjoy”.

Works Cited Borromean Knot. nd. University of Victoria. Web. 21 Oct Bryant, Levi R. “Messianic Politics: The Real, The Imaginary, and the Symbolic.” Larval Subjects. Wordpress. 8 May Web. 21 Oct Dali, Salvador. Anthropomorphic Cabinet Salvador Dali Paintings. Paintings Art Picture Gallery. Web. 21 Oct Killian, Brian. Curse of Narcissus Moonmomm Nuptial Mystery. nd. Web. 21 October 2014.Kovacevic, Filip. "A Lacanian Approach To Dream Interpretation." Dreaming 23.1 (2013): Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Oct Ruti, Mari. "Reading Lacan As A Social Critic." Angelaki: Journal Of The Theoretical Humanities 17.1 (2012): Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Oct Weiss, Tzahi. "On The Matter Of Language: The Creation Of The World From Letters And Jacques Lacan's Perception Of Letters As Real." Journal Of Jewish Thought & Philosophy (Brill Academic Publishers) 17.1 (2009): Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Oct Williams, Adam. “Had some fun at the park today and created a disappearing reflection effect.” Photograph. Pinterest Web. 21 Oct.2014.