instincts, even though, as we have seen in the case of the Gestaltic nature of the spec-
ular imago,instincts undoubtedly have a certain relevance. Not without oscillations,
Lacan regards the (de)formative power of imagosas culturally mediated.^60 The subject
unconsciously “possesses” and projects a privileged image—an imago—that in its
turn (de)forms him, since it is already embedded in the Symbolic: “Imagosare im-
ages which are already assumed in the symbolic order and are consequently ca-
pable of ‘symbolic efficacy.’”^61 This is certainly true for the imagoof the father on
which Lacan’s first theory of the Oedipus complex depends.
In “Les complexes familiaux,” Lacan discusses three basic and successive com-
plexes, all revolving around the (de)formative function of three different imagos
that dictate the subject’s early social interactions in the context of his family: the
weaning complex, the intrusion complex, and the Oedipus complex. The wean-
ing complex involves the primordial relationship established between a newborn
baby and his mother. This structural interpersonal relationship is based on the ma-
ternal attentions that aim to compensate for the helplessness of the baby caused by
the prematurity of his birth; thus the birth is considered by Lacan as an “ancient
weaning” to be distinguished from weaning stricto sensu(that is, delactation).^62 The
baby accesses the complex by way of an alienating identification with the imagoof
the breast. It is clear that Lacan transposes here the logic with which he has already
explained the mirror stage. By identifying with the breast, the baby attempts to
continue intrauterine life after having been born prematurely;^63 in parallel, he ini-
tiates “a metaphysical mirage of universal harmony”^64 that will always accompany
him. In other words, through this identification the baby both establishes a feed-
ing relationship which allows him not to starve and finds himself irremediably
alienated in the other. If, on the one hand, the relationship between baby and
mother is implicitly thought by Lacan in terms of Gestalten—and therefore as in-
stinctual—on the other hand, he is interested primarily in underlining how the
mother’s attentions go well beyond satisfying the baby’s essential needs, and
should therefore be understood in cultural terms.^65
With the intrusion complex, Lacan provides further proof of the importance of
the mirror-stage theory while relocating it to a wider context. This complex finds
expression in the relationship that is established between the child and his sibling,
whom he considers as a rival. As a result, the structure of the interpersonal rela-
tionship on which the complex is based is jealousy; the subject accesses it by an
alienating identification with the imagoof the counterpart (semblable) understood as
a specular image. I must emphasize that it is only with the resolution of the intru-
sion complex that the child is able to recognize the other as other, to acquire a
“self ”-conscious ego. Lacan thus distinguishes an “identifying jealousy” (jalousie
par identification)—the intraimaginary rivalry between the subject and his specularthe subject of the imaginary (other)