The mirror stage according to Lacan is the infantile stage where an external image of the body (potentially a mirror reflection or represented through the mother) produces a psychic response that gives rise to the mental representation of an "I".
The infant identifies with the image, which serves as a gestalt* of the infant's emerging perceptions of selfhood, but because the image of a unified body does not correspond with the underdeveloped infant's physical vulnerability and weakness, this imago is established as an Ideal-I toward which the subject will perpetually strive throughout his or her life.
For Lacan, the mirror stage establishes the ego as fundamentally dependent upon external objects, on another.
* The German word Gestalt means "pattern" or "figure." As a psychological concept, Gestalt refers to our perception of a form whose meaning exceeds the totality of its components--a Gestalt is always greater than the sum of its parts. Gestalt psychology is founded on the observation that we do not comprehend our world as an assemblage of disparate elements, but as a pattern of meaningful forms. Our understanding of a "home", for example, is derived from more than merely the materials and architectural plans that produce the physical "house." A "face" is likewise more than a collection of identifiable parts. For Lacan, the imago with which the infant identifies in the mirror stage is a kind of Gestalt. The infant recognizes not only that it is a particular shape, but also grasps that this shape has a special -- in fact transformative -- significance.
And now the question - So is the imago conscious or unconscious - I mean if the ego is conscious what is the relation between the ego and the imago - does the ego continue with the image in some kind of dynamic after the mirror-stage? just wondering...
Why do I bring this upon myself ?
Sigh.
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