The big other

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The great other is a term from Lacan 's psychoanalysis . The big other ("A"), in contrast to the "small other" ( object small a ), is a concept of alterity and otherness. The great other is the other of the subject , the not-I , which this subject, however, always structures and aligns. So "the other must [be understood] as the place where the I that speaks is constituted." (Lacan: Seminar III , p. 322)

language

The great other is the symbolic order of language that the subject uses in order to be able to speak and from which it borrows its voice. “What every subject encounters first in his life are signifiers .” (Peter Widmer, Subversion des Desire, p. 43) The model behind this conception of language is Ferdinand de Saussure's structuralist theory of signs with its terms significant and Signified .

Family and society

The first embodiment of the great other is the child's main reference person (often renaturalized as the "mother"); it is a “great other will” which speaks and which introduces the child to the order of language and the social. This applies even more to the father, who in the Oedipus complex takes on the prohibitive role of the law ( incest taboo , threat of castration ), pushes the child out of Oedipal desires and orientates them towards the social world outside the family. In society the law of the symbolic applies , i. H. the law of language , social norms and economic exchange (cf. also reciprocity , exchange of gifts ). In this sense, the great other is to be equated with the order of language, discourse , state rule and economy as well as the “law of the father” (“ name of the father ”). They also form a symbolic order of domination that subdues the subject (subjectum = subject) and structures it.

religion

Another meaning of the term “great other” in Lacan is that this other is not only the symbolic itself, but also a place that legitimizes this symbolic. In this sense he is a “master's significant”, i. H. a superordinate signifier that stands at the end of every chain of signifiers and that first organizes and structures them. As a master significant, the great other exists only as its own effect, in that it structures the symbolic within a field in which it is not contained, but which functions as a guarantor and meaningfulness (the classic form of a great other is God .)

The lack in the great other

Like every subject, the great other also has a defect, is incomplete: “The sense gives the impression that the signifier and the signified belong together. But there remains a residue that eludes sense. This lack of complete association allows the signified to slide among the signified, which leads to the conclusion that the meaning is never exhausted, never perfect. That is why a speech, a script, is never closed forever. This shows a fundamental deficiency. "(Widmer, Subversion des Desire , p. 47)

The symbolic order cannot symbolize “ the real ” as such, although it is precisely the real that is the place to which the signifiers refer. The symbolic order is therefore always incomplete, full of holes, not identical with itself , and therefore barred / crossed out. Lacan's mathem for this incompleteness of the great other is S ( A ) .

"The great other does not exist" means in this sense that the great other does not exist in the real, but only in our phantasmatic imagination. The phantasm represents an attempt to fill in the lack of the great other. To that extent the great other is essentially ideological . Lacan also sees the religious sacrifice as a guarantee that there is someone else who will accept the sacrifice gift; the sacrifice does not serve the purpose of getting something in exchange, but rather serves to maintain the appearance of the omnipotence of the great other.

The great other in postmodernism

Slavoj Žižek describes the great other as the “symbolic substance” of our life, which, through social norms and clichés, constitutes the unwritten rules that effectively regulate our life and speech. In times of postmodernism and post-politics , however, general trust in the legitimacy of the great other is undermined. The traditional securities and rules that structured the community and the individual are no longer viewed as generally valid, but become the object of reflection and free decision and choice (cf. individualization ). But how do you know what you really want? According to Lacan, desire is always the desire of the (great) other, i.e. H. it does not belong to myself. Rather, it is both the desire of the other (in the sense of: I desire someone else) and the desire of the other : I want to know what the other desires in me. According to Žižek, a paradoxical situation.

See also

literature

  • Jacques Lacan: Écrits , Paris 1966, German: Writings I-III , Berlin / Weinheim: Quadriga 1986–1991
  • Jacques Lacan: Seminar II. The I in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis (1954–1955), Berlin / Weinheim: Quadriga 1978
  • Jacques Lacan: Seminar III. Die Psychosen (1955–1956), Berlin / Weinheim: Quadriga 1997
  • Jacques Lacan: Seminar XI. The four basic concepts of psychoanalysis (1964), Berlin / Weinheim: Quadriga 1996
  • Dylan Evans: Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis , Vienna: Turia + Kant 2002
  • Peter Widmer, Subversion of Desire. Jacques Lacan or The Second Revolution of Psychoanalysis , Frankfurt a. M .: Fischer 1990 (New edition: Subversion of Desire. An introduction to Jacques Lacan's work , Vienna: Turia + Kant 1997, ISBN 3-85132-150-2 )
  • Slavoj Žižek: Love your symptom like yourself! , Berlin: Merve 1991