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The child's entry into the symbolic order: a developmental‐societal interpretation of Jacques Lacan
Author(s) -
Furth Hans G.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
social development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.078
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1467-9507
pISSN - 0961-205X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9507.1994.tb00034.x
Subject(s) - unconscious mind , alienation , psychoanalytic theory , feeling , psychology , epistemology , psychoanalysis , object (grammar) , the symbolic , interpretation (philosophy) , competence (human resources) , id, ego and super ego , order (exchange) , grasp , social order , social psychology , philosophy , politics , linguistics , political science , law , finance , computer science , economics , programming language
Lacan's psychoanalytic insights, as found primarily in his 1964 seminar “The four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis” are interpreted within a social‐developmental framework. Using Piaget's theory of a structural transition from action logic to object logic I recast (1) Lacan's signifying function as a new competence emerging around age two and (2) the “Other” as the general content/context of this newness, namely the child's grasp of a societal‐symbolic order. The child's entry into that order is described as inherently linked to sexuality, desire and the unconscious and as accompanied by feelings of alienation and separation. Insofar as the desire of the unconscious is toward the “Other” Lacan seems to support my claim of an endogenous origin of the societal order.