Optical Model of the Ego
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#01
Écrits: The First Complete Edition in English · Jacques Lacan · p.581
The Situation of Psychoanalysis and the Training of Psychoanalysts in 1956 > ///. *On the Ideals of the Person*
Theoretical move: Lacan uses Freud's ego/id topology, Lagache's distinction between ideal ego and ego-ideal, and an optical model (the inverted bouquet/vase illusion) to demonstrate that the ego's structural function is méconnaissance—occupying the empty place of the subject—and to distinguish the imaginary from the symbolic registers, showing that psychoanalytic theory must resist personalist and autonomy-of-ego readings.
It is an optical model that is, of course, sanctioned by Freud's example, and my interest in it can be explained by its affinity with the refractive effects conditioned by the split between the symbolic and the imaginary.