The Mirror Phase

Lacan's hypothesis of the Mirror Phase in a child's development raises a number of difficulties if taken literally. Not least of these is the question as to how does a congenitally blind child develops social and language skills or an awareness of itself as a separate entity from others. (see Raymond Tallis  Not Saussure: A critique of Post-Saussurian Literary Theory  Macmillan 1988 p.153 cited in Webster's 'The Cult of Lacan).  Tallis himself is accused of a superficial reading of Lacan's work and Nobus (Life and Death in the Glass-A New Look at the Mirror Stage in Key Concepts of Lacanian Psychoanalysis p 120) states " The symbolic control of the imaginary implies that the assumption of a self-image can occur outside the field of vision. As such Lacan's purification of the mirror stage entails a reduction of its basis in the physiology of perception. Insofar as the symbolic governs the imaginary, a blind child can still assume a self-image, as long as the symbolic is there to replace and control its eyes, for then it will see itself through the words of the Other".

Lacan refined his 'mirror stage' thinking throughout his career not least in developing some of the implications of the concept.  The mirror stage,  whenever and however it occurs, establishes a relationship between the subject and the "Ideal 'I'".  In the words of the French poet Rimbaud (1854 - 1891)  "The 'I' is an Other" . We are aware throughout our lives that there is a difference between our image of ourselves and the messages we receive from our corporeal body. Although the 'mirror stage' is a phase in our psychic development the initial relationship between the child and its "ideal I" is the foundation for the child's future self-image as a social being and its relationships with others.

Lacan also argues that who we are can only be defined in relation to others.Our understanding of the world comes to us through the mediation of others; the language we speak is already in existence and our thoughts are bounded by concepts and linguistic structures that we have absorbed from others.From this arises a conflict between these learned norms and our instinctual drives such as sexuality that are in opposition to the way others would have us behave. Further there is a continuing mismatch between the Ideal I and the experiences we have leading to a sense of disappointment and frustration. We can never achieve a perfect match - there is always something lacking - in Lacan's terms the manque-a-etre  (the want to be).


In the mirror stage the primary identification is with the image and Lacan argued that this identification is 'fictional' insofar as the Ideal 'I" will never fully conform to the individual's own experiences. What the child sees in the mirror is not what it is feeling. The image appears whole and in control in conflict with the child's experience of being, and seeing, individual elements of which it has no power.

Lacan turned to art to illustrate examples of psychic actions and saw in the works of Hieronymus Bosch (1450 - 1516) and the phantasmagorical figures depicted in his paintings manifestations of unconscious drives. In the Course material we are told that Lacan was associated with the Surrealist movement and to find works by this body of artists that "might have echoes" of the mirror phase.

Salvador Dali - Metamorphosis of Narcissus 1937

1 Narcissus staring at his own reflection in the pool. Unable to embrace the reflection (it distorts and loses its beauty if he reaches into the water) he remains unable to join the reflection with reality and eventually, pining away, dies.

2 A double image with Narcissus transformed into a hand holding an egg from which a flower emerges.

3 Narcissus' reflection with which he falls in love, a love that is destined to remain unrequited. He is rejected as he rejected others.

In between these two images can be seen a group of people who Dali calls, in the text to this image, his "heterosexuals" and who we are told are pretenders of both sexes who were rejected by Narcissus.

The reflected image has all the characteristics of the mirror image in the work of Lacan. It can be seen but not touched and is an ideal that it is unobtainable. Of interest is that Narcissus is unaware that it is a reflection of himself and this relates to the time that the young child is able to see the reflection of itself but has yet to internalise the realisation that the image is of himself.

Diego Rivera Maternity 1916

1. The infant child suckling at its mother's breast

2. The nursing mother.

3 Note the angular sharp lines in the cubist tradition that are at odds both with the underlying concept of the image (motherhood and love) and the softness of the depiction of the breast.

There is a poignancy about this image in that it is a painting by Diego of his infant child who had died recently. It is therefore difficult to isolate the grief that Diego is feeling and the world as experienced by the child. It can be argued that the angularity and sharp edges in the image are a reflection of the grief felt by the painter and the mother at the loss of the child. It could also be argued that this is how the world is experienced by the young infant particularly during the time when it has little control over his body. Young children have a remarkable talent for bumping into things that cause pain. Early in life the mother provides the care and comfort that is necessary for the child and there is an association of the warmth and succour of the mother's breast that is a strong bond between the two.

The further tragedy is that Diego's wife was never able to have another child.

In the second part of the Course material for this blog we are asked to find two examples of the way the contemporary media make use of Lacan's ideas and show how. 

In a lecture given in 1966 in Baltimore Lacan associated advertising with the psychoanalytic problem of enjoyment. It is  argued that enjoyment either as a signifier, as an image or as a sub-text is always at the core of the promise offered by advertisements. "it is only the particular nature of this enjoyment that is at stake with certain car manufacturer's promising a surplus of  "advanced enjoyment" against the supposedly banal enjoyment offered by other cars......and doesn't enjoyment  exhibit all the paradoxical characteristics  of Lacan's  'jouissance'.1. 

'Jouissance' , in Lacan, denotes a paradoxical enjoyment beyond socially sanctioned pleasure, a pleasure that borders with displeasure, a satisfaction tied to dissatisfaction, an intensity that fails to be adequately represented and explained through symbolic means.2 

It is in the advertisers interest to create a longing for enjoyment that can never in reality be fulfilled. If its present product is successful in providing 'advanced enjoyment' then its chances of selling future products of the same kind are drastically reduced. To coin a phrase 'always leave them wanting more'. The existence of jouissance with its paradoxes ensures that enjoyment is a fleeting moment that quickly fades and leaves the punter dissatisfied and ripe for buying the same object.

In Cinema and Television production Lacan's 'want to be' is a key component in Lacan's analysis of cinema going and why we enjoy the activity. Although superficially Cinema and Television are offering the same sort of entertainment - a visual experience of something that is not 'real' and in the case of Cinema always created and presented, there is a fundamental difference that impacts upon the role of the spectator and how he/she responds. This difference was noted by Noble. According to him 'a night out at the cinema, in darkness, in an unfamiliar surrounding is designed to allow the spectator to forget who he is and where he is'. In effect he can be whoever he wants and this facilitates identification with one or more  of the characters in the film.

Television on the other hand us usually watched in familiar surroundings and often in the company of people familiar to the spectator. Furthermore , unlike cinema, television provides in many programmes continuity of characters and in long running soaps the spectator sees the character develop from callow youth to adulthood and eventually demise. Normally the spectator, rather than identifying with a particular character and internalising briefly all the characteristics becomes 'part of' the scene unfolding before him. He responds to the ongoing plot empathising with one or more characters and adopting the norm of their relationship with other characters in the drama. In this role he remains in one sense himself whilst at the same time filling the lack in his life by being fully involved in a way that is impossible to him in real life. The shy introvert can become verbally aggressive and  'in your face' without the risk he of responses that he fears.

Both cinema and television are necessarily temporary and at some point there will come an end whether it be the conclusion of the film when hopefully all plots are realised or at the end of the programme in television where in the series or serial version there is a break at a cliff-hanger moment. The sudden jarring return to 'reality signalled by the lights going up or the commercial break leaves the spectator with a strong desire to return to the imaginary world he has just left where he experienced, however fleetingly, completeness. He has become what all producers of film and TV programmes desire - the captured audience.

References

1  http://www.english.hawaii.edu/criticalink/lacan/guide5.html

2 (ibid)

Sources

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/09/mad men writers bone up on lac.html

http://www.grossolatos.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/stavrakakis-gramma.pdf

http://www.psychoanalysis.ugent.be/pages/nl/artikels%20Frederic%20Declercq/Lacan%20on%20the

http://www.othervoices.org/1.3/bh/highway.php

http://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AA13275744/