One of the main influences on the early Lacan, in the 1920s and 1930s were the Surrealists, then in their heyday. Many Surrealists were interested in psychoanalysis, including Salvador Dali, who met both Freud and Lacan. Lacan had noticed that the meanings patients attach to words are often fluid and seem to be attached to images, while meaning is Surrealist art is also attached to images.
In the first phase of his work Lacan stressed the role of images and the imaginary in the workings of the human mind. He had been particularly struck by Lorenz's famous experiment with ducks. Lorenz had put his Wellington boots next to duck eggs. As the ducklings hatched out and saw the boot, they became 'imprinted' with its image; wherever that boot went, the little ducks would follow. They mistook Lorenz's boot for their mummy. When Lorenz wore his Wellingtons he was slavishly followed by a trail of ducklings, each of whom were captivated by the image of the boot.
In the same way, a man might love a woman who looked, smelt or sounded like his mother, because he is captivated by an image of her. The idea of 'domination by the image' is for Lacan tied to the concept of captivation, slavery or bondage. Such a bond can exist between a child and mother, between lovers or between slave and a master.
'Subject' and 'signifier' are an important pair of binary opposites in Lacan's theory of the subject. His theory of the subject is, very simply, a theory of what it means to be a person. He argued that we are represented by language, by special objects called 'words'. Lacan's technical term for 'word' is 'signifier'.
Person~Subject
Word~ Signifier
He argued that the signifiers that a subject speaks, writes or dreams, represent that subject.
Or, in Lacan's terms; 'the signifier represents the subject...'
Theory of the Mirror Phase...
Humans are born prematurely. Left to themselves, they would probably die. They are always born too early. They can't walk or talk at birth: they have a very partial mastery of their motor functions and, at the biological level, they are hardly complete.
So how does the child come to master its relation to its body? How does it respond to its "prematuration"?
Lacan's answer is in the theory of the mirror phase. He draws our attention, in later texts, to an ethological curiosity, known as "mimicry".
In the first phase of his work Lacan stressed the role of images and the imaginary in the workings of the human mind. He had been particularly struck by Lorenz's famous experiment with ducks. Lorenz had put his Wellington boots next to duck eggs. As the ducklings hatched out and saw the boot, they became 'imprinted' with its image; wherever that boot went, the little ducks would follow. They mistook Lorenz's boot for their mummy. When Lorenz wore his Wellingtons he was slavishly followed by a trail of ducklings, each of whom were captivated by the image of the boot.
In the same way, a man might love a woman who looked, smelt or sounded like his mother, because he is captivated by an image of her. The idea of 'domination by the image' is for Lacan tied to the concept of captivation, slavery or bondage. Such a bond can exist between a child and mother, between lovers or between slave and a master.
'Subject' and 'signifier' are an important pair of binary opposites in Lacan's theory of the subject. His theory of the subject is, very simply, a theory of what it means to be a person. He argued that we are represented by language, by special objects called 'words'. Lacan's technical term for 'word' is 'signifier'.
Person~Subject
Word~ Signifier
He argued that the signifiers that a subject speaks, writes or dreams, represent that subject.
Or, in Lacan's terms; 'the signifier represents the subject...'
Theory of the Mirror Phase...
Humans are born prematurely. Left to themselves, they would probably die. They are always born too early. They can't walk or talk at birth: they have a very partial mastery of their motor functions and, at the biological level, they are hardly complete.
So how does the child come to master its relation to its body? How does it respond to its "prematuration"?
Lacan's answer is in the theory of the mirror phase. He draws our attention, in later texts, to an ethological curiosity, known as "mimicry".
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