What is Jacques Lacan’s idea of object a? Where did Lacan’s idea come from, and what is the importance of object a in psychoanalysis? We will look at what in psychoanalysis is meant by the term ‘object’, how Freud thinks of it early in his work, and how Lacan builds on Freud’s idea of ‘the Thing’ in order arrive at a new theory of the object: object a.
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Works referenced in this video:
– Freud, Standard Edition, vol 1 – https://amzn.to/3Lr0WOH
– Lacan, Écrits – https://amzn.to/4cmdlfY
– Lacan, Seminar VII – https://amzn.to/4pjOnm6
– Lacan, Seminar XI – https://amzn.to/4iY8pAt
– Lacan, Seminar XVI – https://amzn.to/3R55CJm
– Miller – L’Orientation lacanienne seminars – https://jonathanleroy.be/2020/12/orientation-lacanienne-jacques-alain-miller/
– My earlier video on ‘The Uncanny – Object a and Anxiety in Freud and Lacan’ – https://youtu.be/oSrlSbRoMPg
Check out videos on other topics, here.
By Owen Hewitson, LacanOnline.com
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts. At 7’50 the video says ‘Lacan thinks clinically we can see this relationship [characterised by primary affect, prior to any repression] [to the Thing] in fantasy’, while the quote provided states ‘what is experienced, beyond certain limits, has nothing to do with what desire is propped up by in fantasy, which is in fact constituted on the basis of these limits’. To my understanding, Lacan is making a distinction here between the Thing in the pre-Oedipal field (that is prior to the Oedipus complex but gains its importance in terms of retroaction) and object a in the Oedipus complex. So I am wondering if this makes sense to you or if you have more thoughts on this?