Jacques Lacan and Psychoanalysis: An Introduction to His Basic Concepts.

Jacques Lacan and Psychoanalysis: An Introduction to His Basic Concepts.

1. Jacques Lacan and His Major Concepts
Dr. Ilyas Babar Awan
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These slides have been prepared in accordance with NUML’s MPhil English course
outline

2. Jacques Lacan and His Major
Concepts
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3. Introduction: Lacan’s Reinterpretation of Freud
Jacques Lacan (1901–1981)was a French psychoanalyst who reinterpreted
Freud using linguistics, semiotics, and structuralism. Lacan’s most famous
statement, “The unconscious is structured like a language,” summarizes his
approach.
In literary criticism, Lacan shifted focus:
•From the author’s unconscious(Freud’s approach)
•To the text’s language and structureas the place where desire and meaning operate.
•Thus, for Lacan, reading literature is like reading the unconscious through language.
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4. The Three Orders of Experience
Lacan divides human psychological development into three
interrelated orders:
•The Imaginary
•The Symbolic
•The Real
These are not chronological stages but psychic realmsor modes of
being that continue throughout life.
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5. The Imaginary Order
•The Imaginary Orderbegins in infancy, before language.
•It is the realm of images, identification, and illusion of wholeness.
•The child experiences unity with the mother — no distinction between
“self” and “other.”
•This stage is dominated by visual imagesandfantasy, not words or reason.
• In literature, the Imaginary is seen in dreamlike imagery, illusions of
perfection, or idealized love.

6. The Mirror Stage
• The mirror stage occurs around 6–18months of age.
•The child sees its reflection in a mirror (or any image) and identifies with it as “me.”
•This recognition is joyful but also misleading. The image is whole, while the child’s
actual body feels fragmented and uncoordinated.
•Thus, the mirror image creates an illusion of coherence, which Lacan calls the Ideal-I
(or Ideal Ego), a false, imagined sense of self.
•The “I” is not discovered; it is constructed through misrecognition.
•In literary terms, this explains how characters (and even readers) form idealized self-
images that are ultimately illusions.
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7. The Ideal-I (Ideal Ego)
•The Ideal-I is the imaginary self formed in the mirror stage.
•It becomes the model for how the person wants to appear unified, stable,
and admired.
•However, this ideal self is always separated from the real self, creating
lifelong tension and desire for completeness.
•Many literary heroes or narrators reflect this tension; they strive for unity,
identity, or perfection that remains out of reach (Jay Gatsby, Frankenstein’s
monster, Hamlet).
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8. The Symbolic Order
After entering language, the child moves from the Imaginary to the Symbolic Order:
•This is the world of language, law, and social structure.
•The Father(or “Name-of-the-Father”) symbolizes authority, rules, and linguistic
order that separates the child from the mother.
•The ego is now defined through language and difference. We become who we are
through words and social relations, not inner essence.
•Symbolic Order:
•“The subject is spoken by language rather than speaking it.”
•So, meaning and identity are not fixedbut constructed through linguistic systems
similar to structuralism.

9. The Real Order
•The Real is the most complex of Lacan’s three realms.
The Real is outside language and representation. It is what resists
symbolization; it cannot be captured by words or images.
•It is the realm of raw experience, trauma, and the unspeakable.
•The Real can appear in literature as moments of shock, fragmentation, or
breakdown of meaningwhen language fails (e.g., death, violence, madness).
•It represents the limits of both the Imaginary and Symbolic.
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10. Objetpetit a (Object a)
•It is the object-cause of desire, something we continually seek but can never
possess.
•It is not the object we desire (e.g., a person or thing) but the gapor lackthat
keeps desire alive.
•This explains why satisfaction never lasts: desire constantly moves to a new
object.
In literature:
•The quest or pursuit motif (The Holy Grail, Gatsby’s Daisy, Don Quixote’s dream)
symbolizes the endless search for the objet petit a.
•Desire is infinite and unfulfilling, just like meaning in language.
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11. Summary of Lacan’s Major Concepts
Concept Description Literary Implication
Imaginary Order
World of images, illusion of unity;
pre-linguistic
Idealized identity, fantasy, dream
states
Mirror Stage
Infant identifies with mirror image,
forming ego
Misrecognition; creation of Ideal-I
Ideal-I (Ideal Ego) The false, perfect self-image
Characters’ search for
completeness (Gatsby, Hamlet)
Symbolic Order
Realm of language, law, and
culture; ruled by “Name-of-the-
Father”
Identity formed through language;
loss of wholeness
Objet petit a
The unattainable object of desire;
the cause of longing
The quest or unattainable love
motif
The Real
That which resists symbolization;
beyond words
Trauma, death, madness; language
collapse

12. Lacan’s Relevance in Literary Studies
Lacanian criticism focuses on:
✓Language and desirerather than character psychology.
✓Identity as fragmented, not unified.
✓Texts as symptomsof unconscious linguistic structures.
In short: “Freud reads the author; Lacan reads the text.”
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13. Summary in Simple Terms
Stage/Order Focus Keyword Example
Imaginary Images and illusion Fantasy Narcissus admiring his reflection
Mirror Stage Self-recognition (false unity)Misrecognition The creation of ego
Symbolic Language and law Structure The world of social rules and words
Real Beyond representation Unspeakable Death, trauma, loss
Objet petit a Unattainable desire Lack Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy

14. Barry’s Final View
1.He redefines the unconscious as linguistic.
2.He replaces psychological unity with linguistic fragmentation.
3.He turns psychoanalytic criticism into a reading of language, desire,
and absence, not of biography.
4.Thus, Lacanian criticism reads literature as a mirror of the divided
self and language’s endless play of desire.
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