ABSTRACT
Lacan’s proposition—that there exists a fundamental alienation in relation to the desire of the Other—can be inferred from the supposition that the subject’s first identity is bound to what he borrows from the Other. It is thus an identity of alienation. The notion of identity, referring as it does to constancy and permanence, defines the stability of the subject’s relation to the world. Identity is one of the ego’s solutions; it gives the illusion of wholeness in a dependence on the desire of the Other. But for Lacan, identity is never a complete solution. Even if it completes the ego, this does not mean that it fills the space that separates the ego and the subject. The symptom of separation implies that the symptom has been reduced to the point where it coincides with the real, and what is truly irreducible in the subject and thus is most authentic.
