502 _ Jugs Laon ‘The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience igs ‘reed by a Sein flpeeretereee eee meer ciel tees fe tees Pp at este ee cites aeteccesaar ea eres erent eee ba cee eae Riecpe ac uanats ool Hee aguand male «fearing eects eee Seg ee Se ee ee pice minteanted aes ceo eel pee a ee ee ae eae Bc steer tet ena acta pied erin sete aeectaasta a tceenareate Se ears tee Soper canara secure strc a a a nn nen napa apeatr ae en by acer Laan om foe 4 Staton as Al Shea Re ‘rnd wah ed peice of Anoced Boch Puts (U.K) a pet ‘Te Mure Sage 508 ‘upon the startling spectacle ofthe infant in front of the mitre ‘Unable as yet to walk oF even to stand up, and held tghtlyas he is by some support, human of afiical (what, in France, we call a "wotte-bébe), be nevertheless overcomes, in a futer of jubilant activity, the Sbsiructions of his support and, fixing his atitude in a slightly leaningforward positon, in order to hold it in his gxze, brings back an instantaneous aspect ofthe image, For me, this actity retains the meaning T have given i up to the age of eighteen months. This meaning discloses a libidinal dyna msm, which fas hitherto remained problematic, as well as an ‘ontological structure of the human world that accords with my reflections on paranolac knowledge. ‘We have onl to understnd the mirror stages tification in the full sense that analysis gives to the tem: namely the transfor tion that takes place ia the subject when he assumes an image -—whose predestination to this phase-ffect is suliciently indicated by the use, in analytic theory, ofthe ancient term impo. ‘This jubilant assumption of his specular image bythe child atthe {nfans sage, sll sunk jn his motor incapacity snd nursling depen ‘dence, would seem to exhibicin.an exemplar sasaton the symbolic matrix in which the / 1 precipiated in a primordal form, befoce I ‘objected in the daleeic of identfcation with the other. and before language restores to it, inthe universal, its as subject. ‘This form would have to be called the(fdeal 1) sf we wished to Incorporate i into our usa register, in theAgense- Aa it will also be the source of secondary identiicalions, under which term 1 would Bs ena a nor, Ss See ee See eee teomngmobe a he cae ar hace cea ear an cay hier py hte ahs nip nee hormemi teresa ee eo cence 1 Togbout te ance ene ns pec the eto hate lope or ei le ay waarmee anoJ tc ‘to him above all ina contrasting size (1 relief de stare) that fixes it tnd inva symmetry that inverts it, 1a const with the turbulent movements that the subject feels are animating him. Thus, this CGestalt—whose pregnancy should be egarded as bound up withthe species, though its motor syle remains scarcely recognizable—by these two aspects of iis appearance, symbolizes the mental perma: rence of the [, atthe same Ue as It prefgures is allensting ‘estnation; its sill pregnant with the correspondences that unite the 7 with the statue in which man projects himself, with the [Phantoms that dominate him, oe withthe automaton in which, in an Embiguous relation, the world of his own making tends t0 find ‘completion Tied, fr the smagos—whose veiled faces itis our pile to see in outline in. our dally experience and in the penumbra of Symbolic eficacy*—the mieroc mage would seem to be the thresh ‘ld of the visible world, if we go by the mirror disposition that the Vimago of one's own body presents in hallucinations or deeams, ‘whee it concerns ts individ eacies, or even its infirmities, ot Is object projections; orf we observe the roe of the miro apparatus in the appearances of the double, in which poychlcal reais, however heterogeneous, ae manifested, "That a Gestalt should be capable of formative effects in the organism isatested by a plece of biological experimentation tha is {elf s0 alien tothe idea of psychical causality that it cannot bring itself to formulate ts resus i these terms. Ieneverheless recognizes that it isa necessary condition forthe maturation of the gonad ofthe Temale pigeon that it should see another member of its species, of ‘either sex so sufcien in tse isthis condition thatthe desired effect, nay be obtained merely by placing the individual witin reach ofthe field of reflection ofa mirror. Silay n the case of the migratory Tocus, the transition within a generation ffom the solitary to the iregatious form can be obtained by exposing the Individual, at a Certain stage, 10 the exclusively visual action of a similar image, Jrovided its animated by movements ofa syle suiciently close to thar characterise ofthe species. Such facts are Inscribed in an order ‘of homeomoephicidenieaion that would se fall within the lager ‘question of the meaning of beauy as both foematve and erogen ‘But the fats of mimicry are no les insiucive when conceived as ‘cases ofheteromorphic Identiication, in a6 much as they rase the 2. clade Sens, Strachan Care The Minor Supe 505 problem of the signification of space for the ling organism psychological concepts hardly seem less appropriate for shedding lighton these mavers than ridiculous attempts to reduce them tothe supposedly supreme law of adaptation. We have only to recall how Roger Callos (who was then very young, and stl fresh ftom his tezich ith the socolopal school in whieh e wis tines) luminated the subject by using the term legendary pacbasibonta’ to classy morphological mimiery as an obsession wih space in its derealzing eect. have aself shown inthe social dialectic that structures human ‘knowledge as paranoia’ why human knowledge has greater autono- ‘yy than animal knowledge in relation to the feld of force of deste, ‘but also why human knowledge is determined in that litle reality (ce pou de roa), which the Sucealists, io thle restless way, saw as is Imitation. These relections lead me to recognize inthe spatial ‘aptstion manifested in the miroestage, even before the social dialectic, the effec in man of an organic insliiency in his natural ‘eality—in so far as any meaning canbe given to the word ‘nature ‘Tam led, therefore, fo regard the function ofthe mitrorstage a5 particular case of the function of the imago, which I to establish elation beoween the organism and its reality—of, a5 they 8), berwveen the Innenwelt andthe Umwelt In man, however, this relation to ature i altered by a certain dehiscence at the hear of the organism, 2. primo Desnayed by the signs of uneasiness and motor waco oedination oF the neonatal months. The objecive notion of the anatomical incom pleteness of the pyramidal sytem and likewise the presence of ‘certain humoral residues ofthe maternal onganism confirm the view | have formulated asthe fact ofa teal spec prematurity of birt in 1s worth noting, incidentally, that chis sa fact secognized as such by embryologiss, by the tem foetalization, which determines the prevalence of the socalled superior apparatus of the new, and ‘especially ofthe cone, which psycho surgical opentions lead 10 regard as the itr-organie mirror. This development is experienced as a temporal dialectic that ‘decisively projects the formation ofthe individual into history. The ‘mirror stage isa drama whose internal thrust Is peccipitated from {insufficiency to antcjpation—and which manufactures for the sub- 2. gress la Pychoana’ Band fei 180,506 ropes tne aught up in te re pati enon, the sucesion of ‘Smee tat eed om agen osmage oa mis ‘taal el hoped ny ote swum the sec icing sty, mich il mark wth cure he sbers ene mental development Tho beak Ot SP cele of the Innenuet Ino we Une? enortcs the fnethasble que of he gp ecto Sin tqmerted by ehihieen Tate rode to ou sytem often fences oslo el i reas ‘then the movement ofthe sala encounter cerain love of esse snetion ne nda shen pperin che for SHuuned line. oo tose one represented In exo. growing wing nding up seo nial pesectons—tbe ‘Erysue thie visonay Miron Bosch has ae foal ie, Tepetng icant om fe oeeth cena he nanny eh of modern an: Buta rm een angi eee the erunicleve in the nso giao tht ene the antomy (lama a chibied im the stand and gusnode sympeons of Corelaively, the formation of the Fis symbolized in dreams by a fortress, ora stadum—is inner arena and enclosure, surrounded by frarshes and rubbiships, dividing it inko to opposed fields of Contest where the subjec founders in quest ofthe lofty, emote inner fase whose form (Gometimes pxtaposed in the sime scenario) Symbolizes the id in a quite staring way. Simialy, on the mental plane, we End realized the structures of fortified wors, the metaphor ‘Of which arses spontaneously, as If issuing from the symptoms themselves, 10 designate the mechanisms of obsessional neurosis i Nimersion, isolation, eeduplication, cancellation and displacement, ‘Butif we mere co build on these subjecuve givens alone—however litle we fee them fom the condition of experience that makes us see them as partaking of the nature ofa Linguistic technique—our theoretical atempes Would remain exposed to the change of project Jing themselves into the unthinkable of an absolute subject. This is ‘why have sought Inthe present bypothess, grounded ina conjunc tion of objective dat, the guiding gid for a method of symbolic reduction. Tt establishes in the defences of the ego a genetic order, in accordance wit the wish formulated by Miss Anna Fre, in the fst part of her great work, and stuates (as agains a frequently expressed The Mire Suge 507 prejudice) Iysterel repression ad i etrns at more ache age than obsession inversion ad is oltng process, nd the later in tum a preliminary to parnot alenatton, which dates fom the defection te scsi Fi he ol This moment in which the mirorstage comes to an end i ses bythe deicaon withthe mag ofthe coutespat and the dara of peimoralfeatousy (20 well brought out by te school of ‘Chacloue Buhler in the phenomenon of nfl destin he dialect hat il ene nthe Fo socal aborted Sts Tes ths moment that decsvey ps the whole of human know ge imo mediation through the dese othe oes, coms fs objec in an abst equivalence by the cooperation of ther, and uns the Tio that appar for which every insicoal thst onsite a danger, eventhough should corepond to a natural fataraion-—the very normalaton ofthis maturton blog hence fot dependent, in man, on clue mediation a exemple n the ase ofthe sera bie, by he Onis comple nthe light of his conception, the etm primary tac, by ‘hich aac docsine delgats the lida investment character. Isic of tat moment, reves In those who lnvented i he most [rofound awareness of semantic ates But also throws ight on the djmamle opposton bersen this libido and the wera bio, ‘ich the fst ays ed to define when they involed deste ‘nd indeed, death instinct, n onder to explain the evident connec. tion Between the nari Iibido andthe alent function of the {the sere ceses in anyon tthe the ren In reo involving the most Smartan of ai. Ta fay they were encountering a extent aay whose rely 50 goo proce bythe conempory phlasophy of being and nothingness ‘Buc unfortunately tat llosopy grasps negation within the limits ofa sltsuicleney of consciousness, which, se one of Is Premise, inks othe maconnateonce that conse the othe {sion of autonomy to which entre el This igh of cor chat ra an una extent on borrowings om fee Ij experince,clmiates i the preteon of roiling an ex teal pejeoanays ‘A the culmination ofthe orl ffort of a society to refuse to recognize that it as any fancton eer tan the wlan one and508 cques tan {in the anxiety of the fnvidual confiontng the ‘concentational* form of the social hond that seems 9 arise to crown this effor, existendalism must be judged by the explanations It gives of the subjective impasses that have indeed resulted from i; freedom that Is never more authentic than when i is within the walls of a prison, demand for commitment, expressing the impotence ofa pure con ‘clusness to master any situation; a voyeuristic sadistic idealization (ofthe sexual relation; personality that realizes itself only in suicide, a conscousnes af the thes tht can bested only by Hegelian "These propositions are opposed by all our experience, insofar as [it teaches us not 10 regard the ego as centered on the percep- tion-consciousmess system, ot a8 organized by the ‘reality prin: ‘plea principle that i the expression of a scientific prejudice ‘most hosule to the dialectic of knowledge. Our experience shows that we should start instead from the function of méconnatsance that characterizes the ego in al its structures, so markedly arte ‘ulated by Miss Anna Freud. For, ifthe Verneimung represents the ‘patent form of that function, its effects will for the most par, remain latent, so long as they are not illuminated by some light refleced on to the level of fatality, which Is where the id mani- fests set. ‘We can thus understand the inertia characteristic ofthe formations ‘ofthe J and find there the mosteatensve definition of newosis—ust as the caption of the subject by the situation gives us the most ‘general formula for madness, no Only the madness that les behind the walls of asylums, but also the madness that deafens the world ‘with ts sound and fury, ‘The sulferings of neurosis and psychos are for usa schooling in ‘the pasions ofthe soul, ust asthe beam ofthe psychoanalytic scales, ‘when we calculate the ult of is threat to ‘entire communities, ‘provides us with an indicaion of the deadening of the passions in society. ‘A this junction of nature and culture, so persistently examined by ‘modern anthropology, psychoanalysis alone recognize this knot of Imaginary servitude that lowe must alwys undo aguin, or sever 4 \Concenmatonai an ace cole afer Word Wat It sae was rites i 1909) to dace theif the concanaton cap, the and of utenti by men pam pet mo ie . ‘he Manor Sage _509 For such a task, we place no trust in alas feeling, we who lay | bare the aggresiity that underlies the activity ofthe philanchropls, the idealist, the pedagogue, and even the reformer. Inthe eecouse of eubject to subject that we preserve, psychoanaly- ss may accompany the patent tothe ecstatic limit ofthe “Toou are ‘that in which s revealed to im the cipher of his modal destin, but {tis not in our mere power as practitioners to bring im to that point ‘where the real journey begins.