Social Identification in the Symbolic Order

【前言】Social Identification in the Symbolic Order由文秘帮小编整理而成，但愿对你的学习工作带来帮助。Take another thing for example： my cousin is a city boy and he has been enjoying city life for many years since he was born. Two months ago， when he came to my hometown， an isolated village， my grandmother cooked home-grown potherbs for him. Ho...

[Abstract] Man’s desires and demands are actually socialized. They are produced to satisfy others’ expectation. This phenomenon can be called social identification， which can be attributed to the languages and their interaction with outside world. And man’s desires and demands cannot be totally satisfied.

[Key words] Social identification；symbolic order；Imaginaryorder；Mirror stage

Everyone has his desires and demands. Whether those desires and demands are his own willingness or they are just satisfying others’ expectation？ In author’s perspective， man’s desires and demands are socialized and they cannot be totally satisfied， which cannot be called social identification and some theories of Jacques Lacan support this idea.

According to Jacques Lacan’s “mirror stage” theory， a child recognizes him or her in the mirror and becomes conscious of selfhood before he is 18 months old in this stage. And that is the first time they know that they are separate from others. [1] This stage is also well known as “the imaginary order.”And then， the individual enters the symbolic order―which， according to Lacan， is the realm of social interaction in which language is the medium through which identity is further developed.[2] In this way， social identification turns up.

The symbolic order consists of intersubjective relations including language， law， sexuality， and signification. [3]Language plays a crucial role in the symbolic order.When a child enters the symbolic order， he starts to interact with the outside world using languages. Therefore， the language becomes a tool to communicate with and to know other people and the world. In this process， everyone is influenced by the values of the society unconsciously and they are tightly connected with the world. Lacan tells us that language is the condition of the expression of the unconscious is that speech itself， reveals in its ambiguities the consciously unintended meaning of the unconscious.[4]When they produce some desires or demands， actually， these desires are socialized and they are satisfying others’ expectation， not their own needs. For instance， when some children go shopping with their parents and they become hungry. They tend to say that they want to eat KFC， not a bowl of rice. When people consider it in general way， it goes like this： one should be willing to eat everything edible to appease his hunger， instead of being particular about what he is going to eat. However， in fact， it’s not true. Even though people are hungry， they still have their preferences. Those preferences are dependent on many elements， such as their social statues， family backgrounds， income levels and so on. And those elements are exactly socialized. Logically， people’s desires and demands are socialized， too. That is the so called social identification of people.

Take another thing for example： my cousin is a city boy and he has been enjoying city life for many years since he was born. Two months ago， when he came to my hometown， an isolated village， my grandmother cooked home-grown potherbs for him. However， he could not bear the taste of them and did not eat any at all. Two days later， he returned to his own home. This case indicates that city children and country children have different tastes. More deeply， they stand for the different living backgrounds. It is those different social elements that lead to the diversity of life. In this way， people， to some extent， can be recognized that which status and classes they belong to according to their habits and behaviors. In other words， the desire of the subject is the desire of the other. If man’s desire is the desire of other， it is as other that the subject desires. [5]This phenomenon also can be tagged with social identification.

What’s more， man’s desires and demands of social identification cannot be totally satisfied. In man’s case， an already corrupt and needful natural body has to be supplemented by a symbolic system that allows the organism to survive but at the price of alienation and an infinite desire unknown to the animal. We need the symbolic order to supplement our deficient animality， but this prosthesis introduces a further estrangement that is expressed in the constant “discontent” of the civilized animal， the infinitely unsatisfied nature of his perverse desire. [6] For example， many rich women like to buy necklaces. They want to buy a new one every several weeks or months. They are satiated immediately at the moment when they get a new necklace. However， the feeling of satisfaction only lasts for a short time. After several months， they will be insatiable again and want to buy another one. The necklace is the symbol of social identification and their insatiability means people’s desires and demands are cannot satisfied. The simple point that satisfies our present purposes is that the symbolic is in a state of flux. It is a work in progress and， therefore， always incomplete. [7]

Closing words： People’s desires and demands are produced to satisfy others’ expectation； in other words， they are socialized. And actually， what people really focus on is things behind those desires， such as fame， statues and so on， not desires and demands themselves. In addition， because the society is changing all the time， people’s social identification in symbolic order is not invariable. Therefore， their desires and demands can never be satisfied.

References：

[1] What is Lacan’s “mirror stage” theory？， no date.

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[2] What is Jacques Lacan’s mirror stage theory？， no date.http：///site/wp-content/themes/saylor/curriculum/curriculumQAAJAX.php？action=getcourseunitqas&courseunitid=8440

[3] Schroder. J. L. （2008）. The four Lacanian discourses. Birkbeck Law Press.

[4] Pandit. L， & Hogan. P. C. （1990）. Criticism and Lacan. University of Georgia Press.

[5] Campbell. K. （2004）. Jacques Lacan and Feminist Epistemology. Routledge.

[6] Lewis. M. （2008）. Derrida and Lacan. EdinburghUniversity Press.

[7] Schroder. J. L. （2008）. The four Lacanian discourses. Birkbeck Law Press.