French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, who lived between 1901-1981, brought a philosophical perspective to Sigmund Freud's concept of psychoanalysis and became a theorist known for his closeness to structural linguistics. Lacan's work is abstract and generally ambiguous, and linguistically difficult to understand. At the same time, psychoanalysis, which is a science according to Lacan, had only one object and that is the unconscious. He claimed that because the unconscious is ambiguous, writing is ambiguous and difficult to understand. In line with these claims, we understand that; What is unique about Lacan is the relationship he established between psychoanalysis and structural linguistics. He show that the mechanisms that Freud put forward to the unconscious are also found in language. And he already has found the main invention. However, Lacan; this does not mean that this function adds anything new to Freud. On the contrary, linguistics structurally fills the gap in the field of psychoanalysis.
Also, Lacan changed the meanings of many key terms. The units of language are "symbols". The symbol consists of a 'signifier' and a 'signified'. Symbols are 'auditory images'. That is, the signifier is not an object, but a cognitive object. The signified is not an object in the external world, but a "concept". This means that both elements of the sign are mental. These two elements connect the auditory symbol and cognition. The meaning of the symbols is in themselves. The source of meaning is consciousness. For example, there is neither an empirical nor a logical relationship between the auditory image of "table" and the concept of "table". So this is mental. The auditory image of the table does not just stay in the mind, it takes its meaning from the concept of the table in the mind, not from the reality it refers to in the outside world.
So how does Lacan express the formation of subjectivity?
It expresses with the Mirror Theory, that is, the formation of the self. If we explain; This theory is a stage in which the subject perceives itself differently from the other. What we call the other here is the "mother metaphor".
Lacan describes this stage as a child of about 6-8 months. For the first time, we can see him enthusiastically grasping his own image in the mirror. Lacan argues that this is a realization, an understanding. This situation tells us; it gives the first experience of what in the future he will call "I" in symbolic operation. In this mirror stage, the child integrates the body image that he initially experienced as fragmented, by mediating the holistic images of those around him. This unity happens thanks to Oedipus. In other words, this situation becomes the establishment of the "ego". We'll talk about this shortly. In this mirror stage, the child is in the world of perception. In other words, it is the world in which the child lives not with words, but with images.
At the same time, the child in the mirror stage is in the world of communication and pleasure. Because here the child is in unity with his mother. All a mother needs are her child, and all a child needs is a mother. This mutual desire implies the desire for one another. It is powerful but deceptive. In addition, is the language act of a child in the mirror stage important? Let's look at it this way. Expresses the child's language here as entering into the symbolic order. Language is a system of symbolic signs. For example; I am not a separate entity ('I' - 'me', not 'you''), like having a gender (I am a girl or a boy). This symbolic order creates the experience of separation from others. But the biggest separation is the separation with our mother. This separation brings about our most important experience of loss. This separation is replaced by a kind of nonsatisfaction. For example, finding the perfect wife, making more money, being more beautiful/handsome... all of this is because we want to rekindle those old feelings. Lacan defined this lost desire as follows.
It is written as autre with a small 'a'. Over time, when the child perceives others, this perception bodily distorts the reflection of completeness and responds to fragmentation. The other, written with a capital 'a', is the symbolic order. When these two minor others are compared with the symbolic order, the "I" is constructed. In other words, to be a subject, it is necessary to encounter the big other in the imaginary order. The symbolic order is then divided into the conscious and unconscious mind. In fact, the unconscious is formed when we first suppress the desire for communion with our mother before the symbolic order emerges. This suppression means "sublimation" in Lacanian theory. While man is exalted with metaphors in the symbols of culture, he is pushed into the unconscious behind the metaphor. For Lacan, suppression is a kind of metaphor-like process. That is, although the signified remains unchanged, the original signifier that is signified leaves its place to another signifier. In this case, people think in increasingly socialized symbols. In symbols that express his actual bare reality, he becomes unconscious. The "reality" that we call the reality principle is not a natural reality but a cultural reality. The "subject" under this principle consists of cultural satisfaction.
We have just talked about Oedipus. Now express Lacan's Oedipus complex clearly. According to Lacan, the unconscious consists of symbols. And the oedipal complex is not a real-world complex, but a symbolic one. Because in the oedipal complex it is not necessary for a real father to exist. There is a symbolic father figure. The cultural father is the family discourse that gives full meaning to the father figure. The reality of the family gains meaning around the autonomous rules of the symbolic.
So what is the cultural father, who is he? According to Lacan, the Oedipus complex is at the root of the cultural order. Oedipus is a symbolic complex that transforms the biological being into a cultural subject. The individual gains his sexual identity, which is his first identity in society. So here is the part where he becomes a social member. Oedipus is so important that without it there would be no order of culture. Because the biological mother-child relationship includes the cultural symbol, namely the "father". In addition; The transition to the sociocultural order through Oedipus is initiated simultaneously by two processes. What are these? First, the establishment of the sociocultural subject. Second, the establishment of the unconscious.
If it is necessary to open the unconscious; Oedipus throws the core of unconscious desire, enabling man to rise to the metaphors of sublimation in the world of culture. Because the subject will try to satisfy his unconscious desire. As we mentioned before, there will be dissatisfaction in people. It will always wish for better. For example, it will pursue imagos such as being a doctor or a father. In fact, this is the contradiction of the cultural man. It will always want what he left behind. Man moves away from the first reality of language to the order of metaphors and always seeks what he lost through humanizing castration from his mother as an integrated image reflected on him. But these efforts are in vain. The unconscious desire can never be satisfied. Man always chases dreams, but progresses only through disappointments.
We talked about a brief ego earlier. In the Mirror stage, which Lacan accepts as the narcissistic period, the child integrates his own body image, which he experiences as fragmented, by being satisfied with the holistic images of those around him. And thus, even if something that can be called "I" emerges, this unity is thanks to Oedipus, that is, the "ego" is established when it is represented by a linguistic signifier thanks to the discourse of the family. Although the imaginary relationship is the main characteristic of the Mirror stage, this relationship style lasts throughout life. According to Lacan, the main function of the ego is to identify with an image, it manifests itself as a cultural image. But these identifications are conditioned by cultural symbols. For example, the identification of the boy with his "father" at the exit of Oedipus is an imaginary identification.
This is also an ego function. Of course, there is a symbolic basis that structures this identification. The identification of the ego with the father is the Oedipal discourse. Speaking of Oedipal; In this period, the child gains his position in the family and his cultural identity determined by the founding law of the family. First of all, this identity is sexual identity defined by its position in front of the phallus symbol. For Lacan, phallocentrism is the hallmark of culture. As long as the mother gives birth to the child, the symbol that prohibits the mother-child relationship will be the father. It will find its symbolic quintessence in the father's dominion.
To summarize; there are many concepts in Lacan's psychoanalysis, but it is too complicated. Even these concepts that we have explained provide solutions to many complexities.
Yorumlar
Yorum Gönder