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=====Sigmund Freud=====
=====Human Subjectivity=====
In [[Freud]]'s [[Works of Sigmund Freud|work]] the term "[[identification]]" denotes a [[process]] whereby one [[subject]] adopts as his own one or more attributes of [[another]] [[subject]].

In his [[Works of Sigmund Freud|later work]], as [[Freud]] developed the [[idea]] that the [[ego]] and the [[superego]] are constructed on the basis of a series of [[identification]]s, the [[concept]] of [[identification]] eventually came to denote "the operation itself whereby the human subject is constituted."<ref>Laplanche, Jean and Pontalis, Jean-Bertrand. ''The [[Language]] of [[Psycho]]-[[Analysis]]'', trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith, [[London]]: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1973 [1967]. p. 206</ref>

=====Psychoanalytic Theory=====
It is thus a concept of central importance in [[psychoanalytic theory]].

However, it is also a concept which raises important [[theoretical]] problems.

One of the most important of these problems, which [[Freud]] himself struggled with, is the difficulty of establishing the precise [[relationship]] between [[identification]] and [[object]]-[[love]]. 

=====Jacques Lacan=====
The concept of [[identification]] occupies an equally important [[position]] in [[Lacan]]'s [[Works of Jacques Lacan|work]]. 

=====Image=====
[[Lacan]] places a special emphasis on the [[role]] of the [[image]], defining [[identification]] as "the transformation that takes [[place]] in the subject when he assumes an image."<ref>{{E}} p. 2</ref> 

To "assume" an [[image]] is to recognize oneself in the [[image]], and to appropriate the [[image]] as oneself.

=====Imaginary and Symbolic=====
From early on in his [[Works of Jacques Lacan|work]], [[Lacan]] distinguishes between [[identification|imaginary identification]] and [[identification|symbolic identification]].

=====[[Imaginary Identification]]===== 
[[Identification|Imaginary identification]] is the [[mechanism]] by which the [[ego]] is created in the [[mirror stage]]; it belongs absolutely to the [[imaginary order]].

When the [[human]] [[infant]] sees its [[reflection]] in the [[mirror]], it [[identification|identifies]] with that [[image]]. 

=====Aggressivity and Alienation=====
The [[constitution]] of the [[ego]] by [[identification]] with something which is [[outside]] (and even against) the [[subject]] is what "[[structures]] the subject as a rival with himself"<ref>{{E}} p. 22</ref> and thus involves [[aggressivity]] and [[alienation]]. 

=====Ideal Ego=====
The [[mirror stage]] constitutes the "[[identification|primary identification]]", and gives [[birth]] to the [[ideal ego]].

=====Symbolic Identification=====
[[Identification|Symbolic identification]] is the [[identification]] with the [[father]] in the [[development|final stage]] of the [[Oedipus complex]] which gives rise to the [[formation]] of the [[ego-ideal]]. 

=====Ego-Ideal=====
It is by means of this [[identification|secondary identification]] that the [[subject]] transcends the [[aggressivity]] inherent in [[identification|primary identification]],<ref>{{E}} p. 23</ref> and thus can be said to [[represent]] a certain "[[libido|libidinal normalisation]]."<ref>{{E}} p. 2</ref>

Although this [[identification]] is called "[[symbolic]]", it is still a "[[identification|secondary identification]]"<ref>{{E}} p. 22</ref> modelled on [[identification|primary identification]] and thus, like all [[identification]], partakes of the [[imaginary]]; it is only called "[[symbolic]]" because it represents the completion of the [[subject]]'s passage into the [[symbolic order]].

=====Development of the Term=====
[[Lacan]]'s [[ideas]] on the [[nature]] of [[identification|symbolic identification]] undergo [[complex]] changes during the course of his [[work]]. 

In [[1948]] he sees it in [[terms]] of the "[[introjection]] of the [[imago]] of the parent of the same sex,"<ref>{{E}} p. 22</ref> whereas by 1958 he has moved on to [[seeing]] it in terms of the [[identification]] with the [[real]] [[father]] in the [[third]] [[time]] of the [[Oedipus complex]]. 

=====Types of Identification=====
In 1961, [[Lacan]] goes on to describe [[identification|symbolic identification]] as an [[identification]] with the [[signifier]]. 

He finds support for this idea in the catalogue of [[three]] types of [[identification]] which [[Freud]] presents in chapter seven of "[[Works of Sigmund Freud|Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego]]."<ref>{{F}} ''[[Works of Sigmund Freud|Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego]]'', 1921c: SE XVIII, 107</ref> 

In the first two types of [[identification]] (with a [[love]] [[object]] or with a rival), the [[subject]] may often express the [[identification]] purely and simply by developing a [[symptom]] identical to the [[symptom]] suffered by the person with whom he identifies. 

In such cases, "the identification is a [[partial]] and extremely limited one and only borrows a single [[trait]] [nur einen einzigen Zug] from the person who is its object."<ref>{{F}} ''[[Works of Sigmund Freud|Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego]]'', 1921c: SE XVIII, 107</ref> 

====="Unitary Trait"=====
This "[[identification|single trait" (in [[French]], ''[[identification|trait unaire]]'' -- which [[English]] translations of [[Lacan]] render variously as "[[identification|unbroken line]]", "[[identification|single-stroke]]" or "[[identification|unitary trait]]") is taken by [[Lacan]] to be a primordial [[symbolic]] term which is [[introjection|introjected]] to produce the [[ego-ideal]]. 

Though this [[identification|trait]] may originate as a [[sign]], it becomes a [[signifier]] when incorporated into a [[signification|signifying]] [[structure|system]] (S8, 413-14). 

In 1964, [[Lacan]] [[links]] the [[identification|single trait]] to the first [[signifier]] (S1), and compares it to the notch that [[primitive]] man made on a stick to [[signify]] that he had killed one [[animal]].<ref>{{S11}} p. 141, 256</ref> 

=====End of Analysis=====
[[Lacan]] is firmly opposed to those writers who [[claim]] that [[identification]] with the [[analyst]] is the [[end of analysis]]; on the contrary, [[Lacan]] insists not only that "the crossing of the plane of identification is possible,"<ref>{{S11}} p. 273</ref> but also that this is a necessary condition of [[true]] [[psychoanalysis]]. 

Thus the [[end of analysis]] is conceived of by [[Lacan]] as the destitution of the [[subject]], a [[moment]] when the [[subject]]'s [[identification]]s are placed under question in such a way that these [[identification]]s can no longer be maintained in the same way as before. 

=====Identification with the Symptom=====
However, while the [[end of analysis]] is precisely not a question of [[identification]] with the [[analyst]], [[Lacan]] argues that it is possible to [[speak]] [[about]] [[identification]] at the [[end of analysis]] in a different [[sense]]: [[identification]] with the [[symptom]]. 

=====See Also=====
{{See}}
* [[Aggressivity]]
* [[Alienation]]
* [[Captation]]
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* [[Imaginary]]
* [[Ego]]
* [[Ego-ideal]]
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* [[End of analysis]]
* [[Father]]
* [[Love]]
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* [[Mirror stage]]
* [[Signifier]]
* [[Specular image]]
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* [[Subject]]
* [[Superego]]
* [[Symptom]]
{{Also}}

== References ==
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[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
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[[Category:Imaginary]]
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[[Category:Psychoanalytic concepts]]
[[Category:Subjectivity]]