Jacques Marie Emile Lacan (1901 - 1981) made a major contribution to Psychoanalysis, the discipline founded by Sigmund Freud.
The concept of fragamentation links to object thinking.Through maturation so we move from a 'jumpy' experience
to a 'smooth' experience. We move from 'left' to 'right'. From Lacan's point of view, in early development we have
an image (smooth) and the 'real body' which at that time is in 'pieces'.
The Ego serves to gloss over irregularities and gives us a rationalisation tool used when we communicate with others
For Lacan, as for Freud, language and associated meanings where always in flux. Jung and others, on the other hand, felt that there were some 'fixed', or archetypal, meanings.
Both parties were right. The fixed forms are made-up at the general levels of objects and relationships. For communicative purposes this is very 'general' and so we particularise by creating metaphors, symbols, parables, that enable us to flesh-out meaning.
This gives us a layered approach where each layer of metaphorcation becomes the context for the next, more refined, layer of metaphorcation. This layering of information can lead to the development of fixed forms within the particular culture that has developed the language. The individual can then re-interprete these 'archetypes' and so a personal set of meanings can emerge that sees things differently. Lacan emphasised this point in his work and modern linguistics studies have confirmed that at the generation level so each generation, if allowed, would develop their own languages(creole/pigin) however they would still use the 'general' distinctions of objects and relationships, the differences would be in what was interpreted as an object or relationship.
The concept of nominalisation is common to language and meaning where a process, a relationship, is turned into an object and so interpretations change.
Linguistics demonstrates that development of the individual's language skills is based on consensus, where we all agree on the determination of what is an object and what is a relationship but the distinction of 'what' and 'where' is at the neurological level, the 'what' and 'where' is hard coded.
Lacan emphasised the distinctions of subject, object, and signifier. The signifer is a representative of the subject and is synonymous with the concept of a word and this takes us into the concept of metaphor where the word transports the meaning of subject.
This trichotomy forms a link to the thinking of Charles Peirce.
phase 1 -- that which cannot be spoken of. a total immersion. From the real can emerge an image...(Real)
phase 2 -- meaning image biased, use of analogies 'image A' from 'image B'. Beginnings of language development.(Image)
phase 3 -- meaning is derived through language, use of analogies/metaphors, 'this' from 'that' etc. thus meaning is dependent on the rules of the language. In the extreme language can take on a life of its own. (Symbolic)
These phases manifest a movement from the personal to the social, from the ID to the SUPEREGO, from firstness to thirdness. (For psychoanalysis so the journey starts at phase 2, where we start to try an express the seemingly unexpressable! It is possible however when you understand that for each individual their language development is based on weaving together objects and relationships. By discovering the preferred patterns so therapist can mimic, get rapport and eventually lead.)
Note the distinctions and compare them to the Taoist development processes of Wu Chi to Yi Chi to Tai Chi where Wu Chi is 'the void', Yi Chi is the noticing of a pattern in the void, and Tai Chi is where we give that pattern life through the process of explicit identification in the form of a name.
At this point the whole sequence is repeated in that the object, tai chi, is now analysed for patterns (we use yin/yang to do this) and these patterns are then summed to give us a more refined 'tai chi'. Thus the raw object is seen as 'the void' and Yi Chi manifests the use of dichotomies to analyse aspects and the final product is a 'new' Tai Chi. But at all times there is only one 'origin' and this is the 'way' that cannot be spoken of.
All of this said, it is important to recognise that what we call psychosis is in fact an expression of the individual 'free' of a controlling context, the individual is 'self-contained' and in a sense is very close to 'the real'. At the same time we need to recognise that there exists a 'drive' to return to this 'real' and this is manifest in the disciplines such as Taoism and Zen. The differences are that these disciplines emphasise a level where you must go through socio-logical processes which we then disentangle ourselves from ( or try to!); we experience the real 'as is'. In this sense the 'idea' is to rid our selves of feedback in the form of interfering past memories etc etc. This 'returns' one to a stimulus/response behaviour that is free of socially determined responses.