The object a in Lacan

When we talk about psychoanalysis, the most common thing is that we sit next to Sigmund Freud, the father of this discipline. However, various authors continued his legacy. One of them was Jacques Lacan, recognized for theories such as that of the object a.

Lacan, in addition to developing this theory and pointing out the main characteristics of this object, we will also review some related points within the framework of the author’s thinking. Let’s get started!

Who was Jacques Lacan?

He was a psychoanalyst of French origin who introduced innovative elements to psychoanalysis. He studied medicine and later specialized in psychiatry. Furthermore, in 1938 he began his analysis, an essential process for every psychoanalyst.

Lacan is best known for his first essay on the mirror stage. Regarding this and other works, the author recognized that his theories originated from his reading of Freud. In addition, it was incorporating elements from other disciplines such as:

Linguistics.Philosophy.Mathematics.

On the other hand, He was very active in the art world. He had a good relationship with Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso and André Breton. In addition, he became interested in surrealism, was present at the public reading of James Joyce’s Ulysses, and was interested in the works of Heidegger and Hegel.

So, His approach to psychoanalysis gave us another way of seeing the relationship of art with the unconscious and the void. Above all because he considered that Freud’s work had been misinterpreted by post-Freudians and he returned to it, expanding new notions and applications.

He attached so much importance to this matter that cost him his participation in the International Association of Psychoanalysis after sending them a statement in which he presented his ideas. However, he founded the French Association of Psychoanalysis, and created his own school in Paris.

Object a, what is it?

The object a is a contribution to the concept of the object in psychoanalytic theory. It arises from the need to specify the original object of psychoanalytic theory. Lacan took Freud’s “lost object of desire” as a reference. Furthermore, he took into account “the transitional object” of Donald Winnicott and the “partial object” of Melanie Klein.

So, Lacan was in tune with the Freudian hypothesis that refers to the “lost object of desire” as a matter that is incessantly sought and never found.. An asymptotic longing that is by definition unsatisfied, but that allows the individual to learn by being in contact with reality.

At first, Lacan’s object a consists of the lack of desire to have something fixed, because whenever the object of desire is fulfilled, the person turns to another. Although this concept was directed beyond this, the object a responds to the initial of Autre, another in French, and was intended to refer to the other of desire.

Lacan used the letter a as a logical value, based on algebra. Now, it is a concept that he applied to metaphorize loss, since he conceives the subject as involved between desire, the other, enjoyment and love and anguish. Therefore, it is difficult for the subject to let go of it, since in exchange he will have to pay the price of the loss.

Thus, it would not be of something we have lost, but about the constant feeling that we have and that signals that something is absent in our lives. That is, object a would be the function of masking the fault.

Object a, its characteristics

It has been called in various ways by Lacan himself: extimo, pound of flesh, the senseless, the aleph of anxiety or the abominable. He used these names to try to explain what this and other theories are about. Let’s see what concepts the object a is related to:

Joy. Object a is integral with this function and with the cause of desire. In fact, it answers the question: how does a subject enjoy? It is about the satisfaction of the drive, on the one hand, it is a pleasure, but its basis is suffering. Furthermore, it is the beyond of the pleasure principle.Distress. Lacan says that this appears when there is an absence of lack. Object a is related to this, because it is the one that will create reality.Lack. The object would be a kind of images that reveal a little of the true lack of the subject. Then, it would be the window to failure.Ghost. It refers to both fantasy and that which opposes reality. It has a symbolic, discursive and significant structure. It is related to object a, because the subject can make an attempt to cross it to reach it or to hesitate over it to reposition itself.

However, Lacanian theory is so broad and convoluted that it requires time of reflection and meditation to be understood. This is due, above all, to the language it uses and the concepts it inherits from structuralism and mathematics. To reach a greater understanding, we recommend that you first explore Freud, and go step by step through each of Lacan’s formulations, as they are interconnected.

In short, object a is a Lacanian “invention” based on or influenced by the thought of Freud and his contemporaries. It would be treated of an object that points to the unattainable; a surplus of enjoyment that is related to anguish, lack, fantasy, desire and the other. In other words, it is the object of the cause of desire, or the window of the lack or its masking.

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