Talk:Big Other

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The Big Other (French: le grand Autre) is a foundational concept in Lacanian psychoanalysis, referring to the symbolic locus of language, law, and authority that structures human subjectivity. Introduced by Jacques Lacan, the Big Other does not designate an actual person or institution, but a structural position within the Symbolic order—the field of signifiers that precedes and determines the subject's speech, desire, and unconscious formations.

As Lacan famously asserts, “the unconscious is the discourse of the Other,” meaning that unconscious thought is shaped by signifiers originating not from the ego, but from this symbolic Other.[1]


Definition and Structure

The Big Other is the symbolic register that:

  • structures language and meaning;
  • mediates the subject's entry into culture;
  • functions as the site of law, prohibition, and recognition;
  • hosts the signifiers that represent the subject to itself.

In contrast to empirical others (people, institutions), the Big Other is a transpersonal symbolic function. It is the addressee presupposed in every speech act—the virtual “listener” or authority to whom speech is directed, whether or not someone is physically present. As Dylan Evans notes, it is “the locus in which speech is constituted.”[2]

Big Other and the Symbolic Order

The Big Other is inseparable from the Symbolic order, the realm of language, law, and kinship that mediates all human relations. Entry into the Symbolic, which occurs with language acquisition, alienates the subject into a system of signifiers governed by the Big Other.

In this field:

  • meaning is not controlled by the subject but comes from the Other;
  • desire is shaped in relation to the Other's perceived desire;
  • authority figures (e.g., the father, the analyst, the state) only function as such by representing or occupying the position of the Big Other.

Big Other and Subjectivity

In Lacanian theory, the subject is constituted through alienation in the signifier. Before the subject can speak, it is spoken—interpellated by signifiers circulating in the symbolic field of the Big Other. The subject is never fully present to itself; it is always divided (represented by the barred symbol “$”) and dependent on the Other for its symbolic identity.

The subject’s desire is likewise structured through the Other. As Lacan states, “desire is the desire of the Other”: we desire not simply objects, but the desire of the Other, or what we think the Other wants from us.

Lack in the Other: The Barred Other (Ⱥ)

While the Big Other functions as the locus of meaning and law, Lacan later emphasizes its incompletion, asserting that “the Big Other does not exist” (l’Autre n’existe pas).[3] This means:

  • there is no ultimate guarantor of truth, justice, or coherence in the symbolic;
  • the symbolic order is inherently inconsistent and incomplete;
  • the subject’s appeal to the Other for answers or resolution is doomed to encounter only more signifiers.

This lack in the Other is symbolized by the barred A (Ⱥ) and is essential to the production of objet petit a, the object-cause of desire that emerges as the leftover of the subject’s entry into language.[2]

Law, Prohibition, and the Name-of-the-Father

The Big Other is the site of prohibition and law, most paradigmatically through the Name-of-the-Father, the signifier that introduces the Law and regulates desire. The paternal function imposes a limit—symbolic castration—that breaks the dyadic bond between mother and child and inserts the subject into the broader symbolic field.

This operation structures subjectivity and marks the moment when the subject internalizes the Big Other as the authority that says “no”—or rather, that gives the “no” (non) a structural position.

Clinical Relevance

In psychoanalytic practice, the analyst may be positioned by the analysand as the “subject supposed to know”, a function of transference derived from the structure of the Big Other. The analyst comes to represent the site of hidden knowledge and symbolic authority. However, a successful analysis leads to the deconstruction of the Big Other—the moment when the analysand confronts the lack in the Other and no longer believes in its supposed guarantee.

The end of analysis is marked not by reconciliation with the Other, but by the subject’s ability to navigate desire without reliance on a supposedly complete Other.

Big Other in Ideology and Culture

Contemporary theorists, particularly Slavoj Žižek, have extended Lacan’s concept of the Big Other to ideology critique, emphasizing how ideological systems function by sustaining belief in a consistent symbolic order—even when individuals no longer consciously believe. People behave as if the Big Other exists: laws are obeyed, rituals followed, norms upheld, despite widespread skepticism.[4]

This dynamic reveals the Big Other’s role as an unconscious presupposition of social life: we rely on it to maintain symbolic consistency, even if we know it is a fiction.

Distinctions

  • Big Other vs. little other: The little other (l’autre, lowercase) refers to ego images, rivals, and specular identification (Imaginary); the Big Other (l’Autre, capitalized) is the locus of signification (Symbolic).
  • Big Other vs. real authority figures: Parents, institutions, or deities may occupy the place of the Big Other, but they are not the Big Other itself.
  • Big Other vs. God: God can function as a figure of the Big Other in religious discourse, but the concept remains structural and symbolic, not theological.

See Also

References

  1. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar, Book XI: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis (1964). Ed. Jacques-Alain Miller. Trans. Alan Sheridan. New York: W. W. Norton, 1978.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Evans, Dylan. An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis. London: Routledge, 1996.
  3. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar, Book XX: Encore (1972–1973). Ed. Jacques-Alain Miller. Trans. Bruce Fink. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998.
  4. ↑ Žižek, Slavoj. The Sublime Object of Ideology. London: Verso, 1989.
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