What is Lacan’s “mirror stage” theory?...while our „authentic being‟ is found in the absent world of signifiers, constituted by the Other, over which we have no control. In a sense we live in fictions
The “mirror stage” is, according to Lacan, a stage of psychological development in which a child recognizes himself or herself in the mirror and becomes conscious of selfhood. Lacan maintained that this stage occurs sometime before the child is 18 months old and it is the first time the child recognizes that he or she is separate from others. It begins the process of developing an identity distinct from others and yet, at the same time, dependent on the images of others to determine itself. This stage also marks the end of psychological development; from this point forward, the individual will primarily use language to form identity.
Summary of Lacan‟s “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed inPsychoanalytic Experience”
In his paper “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed inPsychoanalytic Experience,” published in his book Écrits, Jacques Lacan attempts to understand the experience of an infant looking in the mirror and how it relates to the child‟s concepts of “self,” moving, as Dr. Tamise van Pelt, retired professor of English from Idaho State University,says, in “a development sequence through a mirror „stage‟ into a symbolic order .Lacan believes that the experience is helpful in understanding more specifically the construction of self, which Lacan refers to as “
Because of this, he also believes that it completelyinvalidates the Descartian concept of
cogito ergo sum, the belief that the ability to think provesand, by derivation, forms a unified self (1285). According to John Zuern, associate professor of English at the University of Hawaii, in Lacan‟s view, “any self -knowledge is to some degree an illusion” .
Lacan was fascinated by how children between the ages of six and 18 months engage in akind of self-discovery play by looking in a mirror. He gives an archetypal example of a child in a walker to help him (and the child is always “him”) learn to walk, which also restrains thechild‟s movements and holds him upright, giving him the best possible view of the mirror.
Thechild notices his movements in the mirror, and in so doing, realizes that he is seeing a reflectionof himself. As a result, he forms his first impressions of himself, both in terms of his appearanceand his physically mastery over the world around him. Lacan calls this stage of children development the “Mirror Stage”
.Lacan believes that this stage is a part of a machine-like process of our psychological
growth that reinforces his belief in “paranoiac knowledge” (1286), which is to say that he
believes the formation of self that we experience while looking in a mirror is part of our drive to make sense of our world, creating a rational view of the world which, in Lacan‟s opinion, isn‟t so easily ordered.
For Lacan, when we look in the mirror, we “assume an image” –
namely, a way of picturing ourselves (1286). Yet, because we have not yet learned language or learned to take onthe images that the rest of society has for us, it is the very first such image that we take on and isa unique experience. All other self-images occur after we have learned language and startedinteracting with others, and so all other self-images are constructs of the other .
Lacan believes, what Freud would call the “Ideal
But because this is formed in amirror, it is a fantasy, an unreal image that only seems real. As Dr. Allen Thiher, Professor of French Literature at the University of Wisconsin, explains, “the ego exists for us only in the illusory identifications the imaginary offers, while our „authentic being‟ is found in the absent world of signifiers, constituted by the Other, over which we have no control. In a sense we live in fictions.
The result is that, as we strive for paranoiac knowledge, forcompletion of our self-image, we have partially constructed it with a fantasy and thus it willalways remain a fantasy. The irony of human development, then, is that we will forever remainbroken, unable to fulfill our desire for rational order
As phenomenon
The mirror stage is a phenomenon to which I assign a twofold value. In the first place, it has historical value as it marks a decisive turning-point in the mental development of the child. In the second place, it typifies an essential libidinal relationship with the body image. (Lacan, Some reflections on the Ego, 1953)
As Lacan further develops the mirror stage concept, the stress falls less on its historical value and ever more on its structural value. "Historical value" refers to the mental development of the child and "structural value" to the libidinal relationship with the body image.[6] In Lacan's fourth Seminar, La relation d'objet, he states that "the mirror stage is far from a mere phenomenon which occurs in the development of the child. It illustrates the conflictual nature of the dual relationship". The dual relationship (relation duelle) refers not only to the relation between the Ego and the body, which is always characterized by illusions of similarity and reciprocity, but also to the relation between the Imaginary and the Real. The visual identity given from the mirror supplies imaginary "wholeness" to the experience of a fragmentary real. See Lacan's paper, "The Mirror Stage as formative of the function of the I as revealed in psychoanalytic experience", the first of his Écrits.
The mirror stage describes the formation of the Ego via the process of identification, the Ego being the result of identifying with one's own specular image. At six months the baby still lacks coordination (see Louis Bolk); however, Lacan hypothesized that the baby can recognize itself in the mirror before attaining control over its bodily movements. The child sees its image as a whole, but this contrasts with the lack of coordination of the body, leading the child to perceive a fragmented body. This contrast, Lacan hypothesized, is first felt by the infant as a rivalry with its own image, because the wholeness of the image threatens it with fragmentation; thus the mirror stage gives rise to an aggressive tension between the subject and the image. To resolve this aggressive tension, the subject identifies with the image: this primary identification with the counterpart is what forms the Ego. (Evans, 1996) The moment of identification is to Lacan a moment of jubilation since it leads to an imaginary sense of mastery. (Écrits, "The Mirror Stage") Yet, the jubilation may also be accompanied by a depressive reaction, when the infant compares his own precarious sense of mastery with the omnipotence of the mother. (La relation d'objet) This identification also involves the ideal ego which functions as a promise of future wholeness sustaining the Ego in anticipation.
The mirror stage, Lacan also hypothesized, shows that the Ego is the product of misunderstanding – Lacan's term "méconnaissance" implies a false recognition. Additionally, the mirror stage is where the subject becomes alienated from itself, and thus is introduced into the Imaginary order.
The Mirror Stage has also a significant symbolic dimension. The Symbolic order is present in the figure of the adult who is carrying the infant: the moment after the subject has jubilantly assumed his image as his own, he turns his head toward this adult who represents the big Other, as if to call on him to ratify this image. (Tenth Seminar, "L'angoisse", 1962–1963)
What is Lacan’s “mirror stage” theory?...while our „authentic being‟ is found in the absent world of signifiers, constituted by the Other, over which we have no control. In a sense we live in fictions
The “mirror stage” is, according to Lacan, a stage of psychological development in which a child recognizes himself or herself in the mirror and becomes conscious of selfhood. Lacan maintained that this stage occurs sometime before the child is 18 months old and it is the first time the child recognizes that he or she is separate from others. It begins the process of developing an identity distinct from others and yet, at the same time, dependent on the images of others to determine itself. This stage also marks the end of psychological development; from this point forward, the individual will primarily use language to form identity.
Summary of Lacan‟s “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed inPsychoanalytic Experience”
In his paper “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed inPsychoanalytic Experience,” published in his book Écrits, Jacques Lacan attempts to understand the experience of an infant looking in the mirror and how it relates to the child‟s concepts of “self,” moving, as Dr. Tamise van Pelt, retired professor of English from Idaho State University,says, in “a development sequence through a mirror „stage‟ into a symbolic order .Lacan believes that the experience is helpful in understanding more specifically the construction of self, which Lacan refers to as “
Because of this, he also believes that it completelyinvalidates the Descartian concept of
cogito ergo sum, the belief that the ability to think provesand, by derivation, forms a unified self (1285). According to John Zuern, associate professor of English at the University of Hawaii, in Lacan‟s view, “any self -knowledge is to some degree an illusion” .
Lacan was fascinated by how children between the ages of six and 18 months engage in akind of self-discovery play by looking in a mirror. He gives an archetypal example of a child in a walker to help him (and the child is always “him”) learn to walk, which also restrains thechild‟s movements and holds him upright, giving him the best possible view of the mirror.
Thechild notices his movements in the mirror, and in so doing, realizes that he is seeing a reflectionof himself. As a result, he forms his first impressions of himself, both in terms of his appearanceand his physically mastery over the world around him. Lacan calls this stage of children development the “Mirror Stage”
.Lacan believes that this stage is a part of a machine-like process of our psychological
growth that reinforces his belief in “paranoiac knowledge” (1286), which is to say that he
believes the formation of self that we experience while looking in a mirror is part of our drive to make sense of our world, creating a rational view of the world which, in Lacan‟s opinion, isn‟t so easily ordered.
For Lacan, when we look in the mirror, we “assume an image” –
namely, a way of picturing ourselves (1286). Yet, because we have not yet learned language or learned to take onthe images that the rest of society has for us, it is the very first such image that we take on and isa unique experience. All other self-images occur after we have learned language and startedinteracting with others, and so all other self-images are constructs of the other .
Lacan believes, what Freud would call the “Ideal
But because this is formed in amirror, it is a fantasy, an unreal image that only seems real. As Dr. Allen Thiher, Professor of French Literature at the University of Wisconsin, explains, “the ego exists for us only in the illusory identifications the imaginary offers, while our „authentic being‟ is found in the absent world of signifiers, constituted by the Other, over which we have no control. In a sense we live in fictions.
The result is that, as we strive for paranoiac knowledge, forcompletion of our self-image, we have partially constructed it with a fantasy and thus it willalways remain a fantasy. The irony of human development, then, is that we will forever remainbroken, unable to fulfill our desire for rational order
As phenomenon
The mirror stage is a phenomenon to which I assign a twofold value. In the first place, it has historical value as it marks a decisive turning-point in the mental development of the child. In the second place, it typifies an essential libidinal relationship with the body image. (Lacan, Some reflections on the Ego, 1953)
As Lacan further develops the mirror stage concept, the stress falls less on its historical value and ever more on its structural value. "Historical value" refers to the mental development of the child and "structural value" to the libidinal relationship with the body image.[6] In Lacan's fourth Seminar, La relation d'objet, he states that "the mirror stage is far from a mere phenomenon which occurs in the development of the child. It illustrates the conflictual nature of the dual relationship". The dual relationship (relation duelle) refers not only to the relation between the Ego and the body, which is always characterized by illusions of similarity and reciprocity, but also to the relation between the Imaginary and the Real. The visual identity given from the mirror supplies imaginary "wholeness" to the experience of a fragmentary real. See Lacan's paper, "The Mirror Stage as formative of the function of the I as revealed in psychoanalytic experience", the first of his Écrits.
The mirror stage describes the formation of the Ego via the process of identification, the Ego being the result of identifying with one's own specular image. At six months the baby still lacks coordination (see Louis Bolk); however, Lacan hypothesized that the baby can recognize itself in the mirror before attaining control over its bodily movements. The child sees its image as a whole, but this contrasts with the lack of coordination of the body, leading the child to perceive a fragmented body. This contrast, Lacan hypothesized, is first felt by the infant as a rivalry with its own image, because the wholeness of the image threatens it with fragmentation; thus the mirror stage gives rise to an aggressive tension between the subject and the image. To resolve this aggressive tension, the subject identifies with the image: this primary identification with the counterpart is what forms the Ego. (Evans, 1996) The moment of identification is to Lacan a moment of jubilation since it leads to an imaginary sense of mastery. (Écrits, "The Mirror Stage") Yet, the jubilation may also be accompanied by a depressive reaction, when the infant compares his own precarious sense of mastery with the omnipotence of the mother. (La relation d'objet) This identification also involves the ideal ego which functions as a promise of future wholeness sustaining the Ego in anticipation.
The mirror stage, Lacan also hypothesized, shows that the Ego is the product of misunderstanding – Lacan's term "méconnaissance" implies a false recognition. Additionally, the mirror stage is where the subject becomes alienated from itself, and thus is introduced into the Imaginary order.
The Mirror Stage has also a significant symbolic dimension. The Symbolic order is present in the figure of the adult who is carrying the infant: the moment after the subject has jubilantly assumed his image as his own, he turns his head toward this adult who represents the big Other, as if to call on him to ratify this image. (Tenth Seminar, "L'angoisse", 1962–1963)