On the symbolic Other (2 of 4) : A second degree of otherness

We introduce a series of examples - from bug collecting, "look at you" comments and Napoleon's Column in Paris - to further illustrate Lacan's idea of the big Other. We connect the idea to Erving Goffman's ideas of the presentation of self (asking, again: who are such performances for?) and emphasize that the Other is not, strictly speaking, a psychological concept inasmuch as it cannot be collapsed into the imaginary (or ego) individuality of the subject. Important also is the idea of the Other as 'treasury of signifiers', that is, the idea of symbolic Other as language itself, as the mOther tongue that we are obliged to use of even when formulating our most private and intimate thoughts. Thinking of language as mOther tongue emphasizes that our verbal formulations are never simply our own but remain always freighted with Other possible significations and implications beyond what out egos intend. We end by asking: is the big Other 'inside' or 'outside', a tricky question given that the Other is both the field of intelligibility for what we say and the very medium of our unique, individual verbal articulations. Two texts are cited: 'Lacan and Language' by J.P Muller and W.J Richardson (2008), and 'Six Moments in Lacan' by Derek Hook, (2017).
Link to board:
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[@ElectrikCandies]

You are an extraordinary teacher, thank you so much for taking your time to make this channel. Once I'm done, I have a feeling that I'll come back to it for reference very often.

[@derekhookonlacan]

Thank you so much Sabrina. I appreciate your kind words - it will keep me motivated to add more videos.

[@categraves3517]

O

[@peace_cat76]

You give me the idea that really the Big Other is the entirety of a Broadway play. That is, it is the audience, a packed house in my fantasy, as I speak to it, and as the Big Other speaks through me, it is the studied and memorized lines of my particular character's role.
The suicide note that you spoke of seems then to be a wish to have been cast rather in a Tony Award- (or Laurence Olivier Award)-winning play.
🎶"And though she feels as if she's in a play, she is anyway." -Beatles, "Penny Lane"

[@derekhookonlacan]

Nice comments. It seems that it might be useful to keep the big Other as a mobile concept such that at times it is an addressee function and at other times, a reference point to the sum total of consensual ideas within any cultural location. To this we could add, that it is sometimes a reference point for clinical diagnoses .... the list goes on. Thanks for watching.

[@AmicusNoctis]

The examples were very helpful! Thanks!

[@marinastant5249]

It seems that the Big Other is very related to mythology. Thanks again for the great videos!

[@CaracolTulus]

*Trajan's column 😅

[@Alex-eh7gl]

Amazing videos, thank you. Related to this video is how our toddler always wants one of her parents to be watching her when she’s doing something fun. She won’t just do it by herself. Does this mean he she hasn’t yet been able to internalise a symbolic big other? So for now as her parents we have to maintain that function for her literally?

[@J_Dubois]

Thanks for this! What can be said about the relationship between lacans symbolic other and Meads Generalized other? The two seem related
"Any time that an actor tries to imagine what is expected of them, they are taking on the perspective of the generalized other"

[@vietphan1853]

Thanks for these lectures, appreciate the examples