The above video clip accurately depicts Jacques Lacan’s Psychoanalytical theory “The Mirror Stage.”
During infancy, all human’s pass through a mirror phase whereby an external image of the body (reflected in a mirror or represented to the infant through the primary caregiver) produces a psychological response that gives rise to and produces the mental representation of an “I.”
In the above video, the infant identifies the image as his, and in doing so, begins to build a perception of his self. As Lacan states, “We have only to understand the mirror stage as an identification, in the full sense that analysis gives to the term: namely, the transformation that takes place in the subject when he assumes an image—“ (1164). The mirror stage then reflects and represents the Ego’s dependence upon external objects and people.
In the above video, the infant identifies the image as his, and in doing so, begins to build a perception of his self. As Lacan states, “We have only to understand the mirror stage as an identification, in the full sense that analysis gives to the term: namely, the transformation that takes place in the subject when he assumes an image—“ (1164). The mirror stage then reflects and represents the Ego’s dependence upon external objects and people.
Why this is interesting to me:
As an individual grows up and enters into social relations and situations he or she strives to become the “I” that is seen by others and the mirror. And later, as one matures and begins to master the creative power of language and imagery, one will then begin to project what he or she wishes to be seen as.
Interesting side story:
Lacan, in his essay “The Mirror stage as Formative,” reflects upon the fact that an infant recognizes him or herself before gaining full motor and speech function and as a result views themselves as fragmented. This leads to a child striving to reach the ideal portrayed in the mirror.
A good friend of mine, Ms. Kimberly King, has a young daughter. When I was telling her about Lacan’s Mirror stage theory, while asking her to share her personal thoughts, she told me the most interesting side story. After her daughter, Amy, began to see herself as a separate person, in the mirror, she became more temperamental and could only be soothed by being given a hand held mirror. Perhaps then, Amy’s infantile feelings of anxiety, fragmentation, and loss of control were soothed by the presence of a mirror because the mirror gave the young girl a feeling of separate wholeness.
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