An imaginary, or social imaginary is the set of values, institutions, laws, and symbols common to a particular social group and the corresponding society. Jacques Lacan introduced the term in 1936 and continued to use it throughout his work as one of the three orders in his psychoanalytic theory. The imaginary as a lacanian term entails connotations of illusion, seduction and fascination but is by no means unnecessary or inconsequential (as something that is illusory).