ABSTRACT
In Lacanian theory entry into language is necessary to the child unless he or she is to become ‘sick’; at the same time entry into language inevitably creates a division between the subject of the enunciation and the subject of the énoncé, the ‘I’ who speaks and the ‘I’ who is represented in the utterance. The subject is held in place in the speech by the use of ‘I’ but this ‘I’ is always a ‘stand-in’ (Miller 1977-8:25-6), a substitute for the ‘I’ who speaks. It is this contradiction in the subject — between the conscious self, which is conscious in so far as it is able to feature in language, and the self which is only partially represented there-which constitutes the source of possible change. The child’s submission to the discursive practices of society is challenged by the existence of another self, which is not synonymous with the subject of its utterance.
