What does Lacan say about the mirror stage?

Drawing on work in physiology and animal psychology, Lacan proposes that human infants pass through a stage in which an external image of the body (reflected in a mirror, or represented to the infant through the mother or primary caregiver) produces a psychic response that gives rise to the mental representation of an …

How is Jacques Lacan’s theory of the mirror stage different?

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.

What according to Lacan are the three stages of child development?

According to Lacan, there are three stages of the first four years of one’s life. These stages: The Real, The Imaginary, and The Symbolic, are each important in the studies of psychoanalysis, but for our purposes we will be focusing on The Imaginary or, as it is more well known, The Mirror Stage.

What is a mirroring phase?

the stage in development occurring around 6 to 18 months of age when the infant becomes able to imagine himself or herself as an autonomous ego in the image of the parent and also starts to recognize his or her reflection in a mirror. That is, the child begins to acquire a self-image.

Why is mirror stage so important?

The mirror stage establishes what Lacan terms the “imaginary order” and, through the imaginary, continues to assert its influence on the subject even after the subject enters the symbolic order.

What is the ideal I Lacan?

Lacan’s “ideal ego” is the ideal of perfection that the ego strives to emulate; it first affected the subject when he saw himself in a mirror during the mirror stage, which occurs around 6-18 months of age (see the Lacan module on psychosexual development).

What is the principle of mirror?

You’ve no doubt heard the phrase, “You are what you eat.” The mirror principle suggests that we are always digesting life experience. When we decide who to spend time with and how to spend our time, we define the experiences that form our psychological diet.

What is the difference between Freud and Lacan?

While Freud envisioned the possibility of examining the murky depths of the unconscious with the light of consciousness, Lacan believes that ordinary consciousness can legitimately be aware only of its own incapacity.

What is the real according to Lacan?

THE REAL (Lacan): The state of nature from which we have been forever severed by our entrance into language. Only as neo-natal children were we close to this state of nature, a state in which there is nothing but need. The Real works in tension with the imaginary order and the symbolic order.

What is Lacan theory?

central pillar of Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory is that “the unconscious is structured like a language”, which he substantiates in the essay The Insistence of the Letter in the Unconscious. Lacan draws on Saussure and emphasizes that meaning is a network of differences.

What is superego in personality?

According to Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality, the superego is the component of personality composed of the internalized ideals that we have acquired from our parents and society. The superego works to suppress the urges of the id and tries to make the ego behave morally, rather than realistically.

What is the function of the superego?

The superego is the ethical component of the personality and provides the moral standards by which the ego operates. The superego’s criticisms, prohibitions, and inhibitions form a person’s conscience, and its positive aspirations and ideals represent one’s idealized self-image, or “ego ideal.”

What was Jacques Lacan’s theory of the mirror stage?

Jacques Lacan’s Theory of ‘The Mirror Stage’. Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan[1] (April 13, 1901 – September 9, 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, who made prominent contributions to the psychoanalytic movement.

What are the basic concepts of Jacques Lacan?

Fundamental Concepts 1 2.1 Register Theory. The theory of the three registers of the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real forms the skeletal framework for the various concepts and phases of most of 2 2.2 The Mirror Stage, the Ego, and the Subject. 3 2.3 Otherness, the Oedipus Complex, and Sexuation. 4 2.4 The Libidinal Economy.

Which is the main text of the mirror stage theory?

This is usually seen as the main text on the mirror stage theory, but there are a number of other texts roughly contemporary with it, through which Lacan develops related ideas. By looking at these as well we can learn something about the development of the mirror stage theory and its place in Lacan’s thought at that time.

When did Jacques Lacan publish his first book?

Prior to this, Lacan had published only a single book, his thesis in psychiatry (1932). The nine-hundred-page Écrits gathered together many of Lacan’s most important articles and essays into a single volume, covering a thirty-year stretch from 1936 to 1966.