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In the 1938 encyclopedia article, this idea is used to give a brilliant explanation of the inexplicable swings in a [[child]]'s [[behavior]] from the tyrannical or [[seductive]] attitude to its opposite. Rather than linking this to a conflict between two individuals, the [[child]] and the [[spectator]] in this instance, [[Lacan]] argues that it derives from a conflict [[internal]] to each of them, resulting from ''an [[identification]] with the other party''. This is an organizing principle of [[development]] rather than a single moment in [[childhood]]. (If I have [[identified]] with an [[image]] [[outside]] myself, I can do things I couldn't do before.)
=====EditThe Imaginary=====<!-- But all this is at a price. If I am in the place of another child, when he's struck, I will cry. If he wants something, I'll want it too, because I am in his place. I am trapped in an image fundamentally alien to me, outside me. -->[[Mastery]] of one's motor functions and an entry into the [[human]] [[world]] of [[space]] and movement is thus at the prince of a fundamental [[alienation]]. [[Lacan]] calls the [[register]] in which this [[identification]] takes place "[[the imaginary]]", emphasizing the importance of the [[visual field]] and the [[specular relation]] which underlies the [[child]]'s [[captivation]] in the [[image]].
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