The imaginary

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The imaginary is a collective term for everything “pictorial”. This includes material images, but also mental images, be they individual or collective. In a narrower sense, the term in the theory of the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan denotes - analogous to the concepts of the symbolic and the real - one of the three structural determinations of the psychic. In a general sense of everyday language use, “imaginary” means something like “apparent, apparent, only taking place in the imagination, untrue, fictitious”. Another use can be found in mathematics, see: Imaginary number .

Concept history

The term "imaginary" is derived from the Latin word for "image" ( "imago" ) as well as from " imagination " (imagination, imagination) and the adjective "imaginarius" ("imagined"). The concept of the imaginary appeared in medieval philosophy and was treated as a phantasy by Aristotle . The exclusive connotation of the term “imaginary” with “conceited” is particularly effective in the German-speaking area to this day, which means that imaginary objects are often unreal and only imagined, in particular illusions , hallucinations , deceptions and, above all, fancies .

In other countries, the term is not such a negative connotation, but rather is with the more neutral word "imago" linked, from which, in English, in French, both as the standard terms for "image" ( "image" derived). In France in particular, extensive, interdisciplinary research on "l'imaginaire" has been established for decades , in which philosophy and sociology in particular are intensively involved. Important authors in this context are Michel Maffesoli , Jean-Luc Nancy , but also Jean-Paul Sartre , who wrote a book in 1940 with the title The Imaginary . A comprehensive theory of the social imaginary was provided by v. a. Cornelius Castoriadis . Analyzes of a collective imaginary can already be found in the beginning in Émile Durkheim . In German-speaking countries, the term gains only in the course of the emerging image science ( visual studies ) and the iconic turn on the one hand, due to the increasing Lacan reception on the other hand, of scientific influence.

Used by Lacan

In a narrower sense, the term is used in the context of the theory of the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. For Lacan, “the imaginary” denotes one of the three registers of the psychic. The imaginary is organized in a pictorial and dual manner and is especially developed in the mirror stage . It is the place of self-identification , of self-image , but also of misunderstanding and deception. The area of desire ( see: small object a ) and phantasms also belong to the imaginary .

literature

Historical approaches
  • Klaus Krüger et al. (Ed.): Imagination and Reality. On the relationship between mental and real images in early modern art. Mainz 2000, ISBN 3-8053-2716-1 .
  • Jacques Le Goff : knights, unicorns, troubadours. Heroes and wonders of the Middle Ages. Translated from the French by Annette Lallemand. Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-53585-2 .
Sociological Approaches
Psychoanalytic Approaches
  • Margaret Mahler , Fred Fine, Anni Bergman: The Psychological Birth of Man. Symbiosis and Individuation. Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-596-26731-5 .
  • Jean Piaget , Bärbel Inhelder: The development of the inner image in the child. Translated by Annette Roellenbleck. Frankfurt am Main 1990.
  • Dylan Evans: Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis. Translated from the English by Gabriella Burkhart. Turia + Kant, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-85132-190-1 .
  • Peter Widmer: Subversion of Desire. Jacques Lacan or the 2nd Revolution in Psychoanalysis. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 3-596-24188-X ; New edition: Subversion of Desire. An introduction to Jacques Lacan's work. Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-85132-150-2 .
  • Hanna Gekle: death in the mirror. On Lacan's theory of the imaginary. Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-518-28798-2 .
Philosophical Approaches
Literary approaches