The subject of unconscious, the object little-a, the phallus

Abstract

Lacan will save from oblivion and misinterpretation the fundamental Freudian truths through a long-term and complex operation – known as his “Return to Freud”. More precisely, he will introduce the concept of the divided subject, determined by the symbolic order and the function of language. He will elucidate the imaginary structure of the Ego, by detecting its foundations in the mirror stage. He will define the unconscious as a type of memory based on the qualities of the signifying chain. He will interpret the death drive as the insistence of repetition. He will attribute to sexuality a metabiological status, based on the subjectivation of the gender and the meaning of the phallus. On the cutting edge of this operation, he will renew the theory of the drive’s circuit by introducing the object little-a.