英：other/Other; 法：autre/Aure
“他者”或许是拉康著作中最复杂的术语。当拉康在1930年代首先开始使用这一术语的时候，它并不是非常突出，而且也仅仅指的是“他人”。虽然弗洛伊德也确实使用过“他者”一词，并用它来谈论“他人”(der Andere)与“他性”(das Andere), 但是拉康似乎是从黑格尔那里借来这个术语的，拉康参加了亚历山大·科耶夫在1933一1939年举办于巴黎高等师范学校的一系列讲座，从而了解到了黑格尔的著作 (见：Kojeve, 1947).
在I955年，拉康便在“小他者”(the little other)与“大他者”(he big Other)之间做出了区分 (S2, ch. 19), 这一区分始终都是贯穿在拉康其余著作中的核心所在。其后，在拉康的代数学中，大他者便以A来指称 (大写字体，表示法文的Autre),小他者则以a来指称 (小写斜体，表示法文的aure)。拉康宣称，对于这个区分的领悟对精神分析的实践而言是根本性的：分析家必须“彻底深谙”于A与a之间的差异 (E, 140), 如此他才能够把自己定位于大他者的位置，而不是小他者的位置 (Ec, 454).
(1)小他者并非那种作为实际他人的他者，而是自我 (EGO)的某种映射与投射（这就是为什么符号a可以在 [[Schema L L图式]] 中交替代表小他者与自我的原因所在）。他同时也是相似者 (COUNTERPART)与镜像 (SPECULAR IMAGE)。小他者因而便完全被铭写在想象秩序之中。有关符号α在拉康著作中的发展的更详细讨论，见：[[objet (petit) a 对象小a]] .
(2)大他者则指代根本的相异性 (alterity),此种他者性 (other-nss)之所以会超越想象界的虚假相异性，是因为它无法经由认同而得到同化。拉康将此种根本相异性等同于语言和法则，因此大他者便被铭写在象征界的秩序之中。实际上，大他者即象征界，因为它对每个主体而言都是特殊化的。因而，大他者既是就其根本的相异性与不可同化的独一性而言的另一主体，又在与其他主体之间关系的象征秩序中作为中介。
然而，严格地讲，“大他者之为另一主体”的意义相对于“大他者之为象征秩序”的意义而言是居于次要的，“大他者必须首先被看作一个位点，即言语在其中得以构成的位点”(S3,274)。因而，只有在次要的意义上，即在某一主体可能占据这一位置并为另一主体“化身为”大他者的意义上，我们才可能把大他者说成是一个主体 (S8,202)
通过指出言语并不源自自我，甚至也不源自主体，而是源自大他者，拉康便是在强调言语与语言皆超出了我们的有意识控制；它们皆来自意识之外的另一个地方，因此“无意识是大他者的话语”(Ec, 16)。通过把大他者构想为一个位置，拉康影射的是弗洛伊德的精神位点 (psychical locality)概念，而无意识在此概念下被描述为“另一场景”(见：[[scene 场景]] ).
母亲是第一个相对于孩子而占据大他者位置的人，因为正是她在接受孩子的那些原始的啼哭，并且回溯性地将它们认定为某种特殊的信息 (见：[[punctuation 标点]] )。当孩子发现这个大他者是不完整的，即在大他者中存在着某种缺失 (LACK)的时候，阉割情结便会形成。换句话说，在由大他者所构成的能指宝库之中，始终都存在着一个丢失的能指。那种神话性的完整的大他者 (在拉康的代数学中写作A)是不存在的。在1957年，拉康通过用一道杠 (BAR)画穿符号A以产生A, 从而图示化地闸明了这一不完整的大他者：因此，这一被阉割的、不完整的大他者的别名便是“被画杠的大他者" (the barred Other).
大他者同样也是“他者性别/另一性别" (the Other sex)(S20,40)。对于男性主体与女性主体而言，他者性别始终是女人 (WOMAN),“男人在这里充当着中继的作用，女人由此而变成对她自己而言的这一大他者，一如她是对他而言的大他者那样”(Ec, 732)。
(autre/Autre) The 'other'is perhaps the most complex term in Lacan's work. When Lacan first begins to use the term, in the 1930s, it is not very salient, and refers simply toother people'. Although Freud does use the term 'other', speaking of both der Andere (the other person) and das Andere (otherness), Lacan seems to have borrowed the termfrom Hegel, to whose work Lacan was introduced in a series of lectures given by Alexandre Kojeve at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in 1933-9 (see Kojeve, 1947).
In 1955 Lacan draws a distinction between 'the little other' (the other') and 'the big Other' (the Other')(S2, ch. 19), a distinction which remains central throughout the restof his work. Thereafter, in Lacanian algebra, the big Other is designated A (upper case, for French Autre) and the little other is designated a (lower case italicised, for Frenchautre). Lacan asserts that an awareness of this distinction is fundamental to analyticpractice: the analyst must be 'thoroughly imbued'with the difference between A and a (E, 140), so that he can situate himself in the place of Other, and not of the other (Ec, 454).
- The little other is the other who is not really other, but a reflection and projection ofthe EGO (which is why the symbol a can represent the little other and the egointerchangeably in SCHEMA L). He is simultaneously the COUNTERPART and theSPECULAR IMAGE. The little other is thus entirely inscribed in the imaginary order. For a more detailed discussion of the development of the symbol a in Lacan's work, see OBJET PETIT A.
- The big Other designates radical alterity, an other-ness which transcends theillusory otherness of the imaginary because it cannot be assimilated throughidentification. Lacan equates this radical alterity with language and the law, and hencethe big Other is inscribed in the order of the symbolic. Indeed, the big Other is thesymbolic insofar as it is particularised for each subject. The Other is thus both anothersubject, in his radical alterity and unassimilable uniqueness, and also the symbolic orderwhich mediates the relationship with that other subject.
However, the meaning of 'the Other as another subject'is strictly secondary to themeaning of 'the Other as symbolic order';'the Other must first of all be considered alocus, the locus in which speech is constituted' (S3,274). It is thus only possible to speakof the Other as a subject in a secondary sense, in the sense that a subject may occupy thisposition and thereby 'embody'the Other for another subject (S8,202).
In arguing that speech originates not in the ego, nor even in the subject, but in the Other, Lacan is stressing that speech and language are beyond one's conscious control; they come from another place, outside consciousness, and hence the unconscious is thediscourse of the Other' (Ec, 16). In conceiving of the Other as a place, Lacan alludes to Freud's concept of psychical locality, in which the unconscious is described as 'the otherscene' (see SCENE).
It is the mother who first occupies the position of the big Other for the child, becauseit is she who receives the child's primitive cries and retroactively sanctions them as aparticular message (see PUNCTUATION). The castration complex is formed when thechild discovers that this Other is not complete, that there is a LACK in the Other. In otherwords, there is always a signifier missing from the treasury of signifiers constituted bythe Other. The mythical complete Other (written A in Lacanian algebra) does not exist. In1957 Lacan illustrates this incomplete Other graphically by striking a BAR through thesymbol A, to producehence another name for the castrated, incomplete Other is thebarred Other.
The Other is also 'the Other sex' (S20,40). The Other sex is always WOMAN, forboth male and female subjects;'Man here acts as the relay whereby the woman becomesthis Other for herself as she is this Other for him' (Ec, 732).