英 : part-object; 法 : objet partiel; 德 : Partialobjekt

根据梅兰妮·克莱因的观点，婴儿的知觉能力发育尚不完全，而且他也只关心自己的即时满足，这便意味着主体起初只能与人的一部分而非其整体发生关系。根据克莱因的说法，原始的部分对象即母亲的乳房。随着婴儿视觉器官的发展，他把人们知觉为完整对象而非离散对象的聚集的能力亦会有所发展（见：Hinshel-wood, 1989: 378-80)。

虽然“部分对象”这一术语最初是由克莱因派精神分析引人的，但是此一概念的起源可以追溯至卡尔·亚伯拉罕的著作并最终追溯至弗洛伊德。例如，当弗洛伊德声称部分冲动是导向诸如乳房或粪便这样的对象的时候，这些对象便明显都是部分对象。弗洛伊德也在其有关阉割情结（CASTRATIONCOMPLEX）的讨论（在阉割情结中，阴茎被想象为一个可分离的器官）及其有关恋物癖的讨论中暗示说阴茎是一个部分对象（见: Laplanche and Pon-talis, 1967: 301)。

从很早的时候开始，部分对象的概念便在拉康的著作中扮演着一个重要的角色。拉康发觉部分对象的概念在他对于对象关系理论的批评上是特别有用的，他秤击对象关系理论给对象赋予了一种虚假的完整感。相对于此种倾向，拉康指出，正如所有的冲动（DRIVES）都是部分冲动, 因此所有的对象也都必然是部分对象。

拉康对于部分对象的关注，是克莱因思想在他著作中产生重要影响的明显证据。然而，克莱因之所以把这些对象定义为部分对象，是因为它们仅仅是一个完整对象的部分，但拉康则采取了一种不同的见解。他认为，这些对象之所以是部分的，“并非是因为这些对象是一个整体对象即身体的部分，而是因为它们仅部分地代表着将它们产生出来的那一功能”(E, 315)。换句话说，在无意识中，只有这些对象的给予快乐的功能才会得到反映，而它们的生物学功能则是不被反映的。此外，拉康也指出，把身体的某些部分当作部分对象孤立出来的不是任何生物学的给定，而是语言的能指系统。

除了拉康之前的精神分析理论已然发现的那些部分对象 (即乳房、粪便，作为想象性对象的阳具[PHALLUS]以及尿流[urinarylow])之外，拉康 (在1966年)又额外补充了几种：音素 (phoneme)、目光 (GAZE)、声音 (voice)以及虚无 (nothing)(E, 315)。这些对象全都具有一种共同的特征，即“它们没有镜像”(E, 315)。换句话说，它们恰恰都无法被吸收进主体自恋式的整体性幻象。

随着对象小a (OBJET PETIT A)作为欲望的原因的概念在1963一1964年左右被发展出来，拉康有关部分对象的概念化便遭到了修改。至此，每一种部分对象都由于主体把它当作欲望的对象，即对象小a,而变成了单一的对象 (S11,104)。从此时起，在他的著作中，拉康便通常将其有关部分对象的讨论局限于仅仅四种对象：声音、目光、乳房以及粪便。

(objet partiel)According to Melanie Klein,the infant's underdeveloped capacity forperception,together with the fact that he is only concerned with his immediategratifications,means that the subject begins by relating only to a part of a person ratherthan the whole.The primordial part-object is,according to Klein,the mother's breast.Asthe child's visual apparatus develops,so also does his capacity to perceive people aswhole objects rather than collections of separate parts(see Hinshelwood,1989:378-80).

While the term 'part-object'was first introduced by the Kleinian school ofpsychoanalysis, the origins of the concept can be traced back to Karl Abraham's workand ultimately to Freud. For example, when Freud states that partial drives are directedtowards objects such as the breast or faeces, these are clearly part-objects. Freud alsoimplies that the penis is a part-object in his discussion of the CASTRATION COMPLEX (in which the penis is imagined as a separable organ) and in his discussion of fetishism (see Laplanche and Pontalis, 1967:301).

The concept of the part-object plays an important part in Lacan's work from early on. Lacan finds the concept of the part-object particularly useful in his criticism of object-relations theory, which he attacks for attributing a false sense of completeness to theobject. In opposition to this tendency, Lacan argues that just as all DRIVES are partialdrives, so all objects are necessarily partial objects.

Lacan's focus on the part-object is clear evidence of the important Kleinian influencesin his work. However, whereas Klein defines these objects as partial because they areonly part of a whole object, Lacan takes a different view. They are partial, he argues,'notbecause these objects are part of a total object, the body, but because they represent onlypartially the function that produces them' (E, 315). In other words, in the unconsciousonly the pleasure-giving function of these objects is represented, while their biologicalfunction is not represented. Furthermore, Lacan argues that what isolates certain parts ofthe body as a part-object is not any biologicalgiven but the signifying system oflanguage.

In addition to the partial objects already discovered by psychoanalytic theory before Lacan (the breast, the faeces, the PHALLUS as imaginary object, and the urinary flow), Lacan adds (in 1960) several more: the phoneme, the GAZE, the voice and the nothing (E, 315). These objects all have one feature in common: they have no specular image (E, 315). In other words, they are precisely that which cannot be assimilated into thesubject's narcissistic illusion of completeness.

Lacan's conceptualisation of the part-object is modified with the development around1963-4 of the concept of OB. JET PETIT A as the cause of desire. Now each partial objectbecomes an object by virtue of the fact that the subject takes it for the object of desire, objet petit a (S11,104). From this point on in his work, Lacan usually restricts hisdiscussion of part-objects to only four: the voice, the gaze, the breast and faeces.