Response to Jacque Lacan

This was a response written for my class, that I thought was fascinating. It's ironic that I'm even posting it. The article was 'Lacan's Mirror Stage', and you can find information about it online, or the actual written thing.

In Lacan’s highly thought out excerpt about the ‘Mirror Stage’, the author provides the reader with an in depth explanation of his studies regarding younger children and their development spanning between 6 and 18 months. Lacan describes this process with a concept and an act – the concept being this ‘mirror stage’, and the act being the child looking into the mirror, at their reflection, and basking in the falsified image presented before them. An ego is built upon this image, the irony being that the image is actually false. It is necessary for one to grasp the sense of the image visually, as most people are gifted with sight and live their lives daily based on the visuals surrounding them. Lacan further exaggerates the idea of the ego by talking about narcissism, and contrasting narcissistic libido and sexual libido.

This reading was very difficult to understand, and if it wasn’t for the commentary in the right column, I probably would have absolutely no idea what was going on. To further add on to Lacan’s theory about narcissistic libido reflected by the mirror, I’d like to argue that although there may be a time where the mirror stage “ends”, there are also instances in the childs (or adults) life that reflect the feelings they felt during the mirror stage – especially in contemporary society. Tools are created that mimic the function of a mirror, and possibly further accentuate or add complexity to a simple reflection. Photography can be used as a means of rekindling the ideas discussed about the mirror stage, yet instead of it being something physically in front of you, it is a moment frozen in time, not moving as the subject does. Yet, this photo can be portable, as a way of admiring it yourself, or possibly passing it on to others, hoping they will admire it as much as you did. Websites such as Facebook and Twitter allow the person to “gift” their audiences with the opportunity to see what they look like at that moment, or how a certain outfit fits them, etc. This turns a simple ‘mirror image’, into a traveling one – one that can be shared, and one that can be equally admired by others, boosting the narcissism that comes with it. Alongside photography is the ability to record oneself in a video. So not only does the image turn into something that’s interactive, but it incorporates the other senses. This allows the subject to experience the moment in time more vividly than they would with photography, actually going so far as accessing history in order to review or rekindle their memory of themselves in that moment in time. Like photography, it is something that can be shared, allowing the audience to not only be the self, but to be an array of other people accompanying the person and subconsciously enforcing or encouraging the narcissistic libido.