Demonstration of differences of Carl Jung’s psychoanalytic concept of imago and Jacques Lacane’s imago in the works of Hermann Hesse and Jorge Luis Borges

The aim of this article is to identify the characteristic features of the psychoanalytic concept of imago - according to Jung and Lacan - in the works of Hesse imago and Borges. On the example of Hesse’s story “Iris” and Borges’ poem “Al espejo” from the cycle La Rosa profunda, imago-poetic images (the iris flower and reflection in the mirror) endowed with a personal-unconscious component are studied. The article analyzes the relationship between the image of an iris and the concept of imago (personal complex) in Jung and the image of a hidden reflection in a mirror with the concept of imago - the first reflection-self in the mirror repressed from memory - in Lacan. The main attention is paid to revealing the functional meaning and role of the concepts of imago and archetype in the storylines of the studied works. An important side of the study is the analysis of two types of imago - objective in Hesse and subjective in Borges. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the study of two main types of imago very accurately conveying or illustrating the theories of the personal complex of two great psychoanalysts. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that imago performs the function of an associative, indirect indicator of the forgotten feelings, emotions and childhood experiences of the hero in Hesse’s story and a kind of an idee fixe of the lyrical hero of Borges’ poetry - love-hate for the hidden double in the mirror. It also reveals Borges’ directed desire to show the path of the imago towards the archetype, the transitional path from the personal unconscious to the collective, from human life to death, which implies an endless life after death. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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