father, and the symbolic father. In An Introductory Dictionary to Lacanian Psychoanalysis, the real father is the man who is said to be subject’s biological
father Evans, 1996: 63. The imaginary father could be defined as the ideal figure of father that a subject has. This figure is commonly omnipotent and an all-
powerful protector 1996: 63. “The symbolic father is not a real being but a position, a function, and hence is synonymous with the term ‘paternal function’”
1996: 63. This paternal function is what has been explained before about father’s role. In other term, the symbolic father is also called ‘the name of the father’.
In relation to mother, father is the one who runs the function of giving other versions of reality to be seen by the subject out of subject’s own mother’s
version of reality. Therefore, father usually does an action of repression in order to make the subject able to comprehend the reality. Father needs to teach the subject
to repress subject’s desire which usually is related to a bond to the mother by setting a condition for a subject to do something before gaining pleasure from it.
A common example of it is the requirement to get parents’ appreciation by leading education as high as possible.
b. The ‘other’ and the ‘Other’
Both terms ‘other’ and ‘Other’ generally refer to the concept of subject alteration. In Freud’s thought, term ‘other’ is used to express ‘the other person’
and ‘the otherness’. Lacan developed the concept and distinguish ‘the little other’ with non-capitalized initial letter o and ‘the big Other’ with capitalized initial
letter o. In French, these terms are spelled autre and Autre, therefore the symbols for them are a and A.
“The little other is the other who is not really other, but a reflection and projection of the EGO” Evans, 1996: 135. The little other is also known as
‘objet petit a’ which represents the cause and at the same time the object of desire which human seeks in the other. Evans also explained it as something which is
imagined as something separable from the body. Thus, the little other is only ‘imagined’ as something separable while truly it is not.
“The big Other designates radical alterity, an other-ness which transcends the illusory otherness of the imaginary because it cannot be assimilated through
identification” Evans, 1996: 136. The big Other seems to be a more concrete alteration. It represents the other subject. In the process that each human leads,
mother is the first person who occupies the position of Other for the infant.
4. Theory of Desire and Symptom a. Desire
Lacan distinguished the concept of ‘desire’ from the terms ‘need’ and ‘demand’. He provided the distinctive point from which people may differentiate
each of them. “Need is purely a biological instinct, an appetite which emerges according to the requirements of organism and which abates completely even if
only temporarily when satisfied” Evans, 1996: 37. The simple example of it is the need to eat in order to fulfill body requirement to survive.
