Lacan: Imaginary, Symbolic, and the Big Other"

For this session, we’ll be reading Lacan’s Seminar I, Lesson 7: The Topic of the Imaginary; Seminar II, Lesson 19: The Introduction of the Big Other; and Seminar II, Lesson 24: A, m, a, S.

• In Seminar I, Lacan defines the Imaginary as the realm of images and ego-identifications, stressing that the ego is a misrecognition created in the mirror stage.
• In Seminar II, he introduces the Big Other—the Symbolic order of language, law, and authority that structures subjectivity.
• By Lesson 24, he formalizes these relations through his algebra: A (Other), m (ego), a (object of desire), S (unconscious subject).

Together, these lessons show Lacan’s shift from the Imaginary to the Symbolic, mapping how the subject is split, constituted in language, and bound by desire.

The readings can be found on our discord here. Choose the sf-philosophy-reading-group channel and check out the two most recent pinned messages.