The Mirror Stage

Thursday, March 14, 2013 2:21 PM

Fun with the Master/Slave Dialectic (or why you should be suspicious of nice people)

Key Terms Imago (image + ego + cogito: in Latin imago = Imago Dei) Why is Lacan so damned hard to read?? Self/other Remember transference - to seek authority, completeness, the knowledge of yourself to be found in Other/other the other Mesconnaissance If you're looking to me to complete you, you're just going to get a rehash of your own problems, Dialectic over and over again (I am not your daddy) Master/Slave dialectic If you're looking to me for answers, you're already approaching this wrong Lack Resists this transference - resists the transfer of "authority" and of "knowledge" Mimicry Psychoanalysts are just as screwed up as everyone else - they too (a la Freud in Dora) will project The Ideal-I their own illness onto their patient if they pretend to be "knowing" and buy into their own authority The Subject Wants you to focus on the signifier and how you make meaning (only you can be the source of The Gaze knowledge, just like you can only cure yourself) Orders: The Symbolic, The Imaginary, The Real We pretend there is a "fixed" meaning - that signifiers and signifieds are tied - but in reality they are always in flux Referent isn't a thing Lacan's Three Major Works "Who knows the truth about meaning?" Erits Desire, the unconscious will always keep this in flux Four Fundamentals of Psychoanalysis Plus, a fixed sign = fascism (Lacan history) Feminine Sexuality Narrative is very difficult with Lacan - no linearity, difficult to ascribe cause and effect A Narration of The Mirror Stage First time the baby looks into the mirror and says, "Wow, that's me" - mesconnaissance [misrecognition] Vs. chimp looking into the mirror saying "pffft, that's a mirror" Chimp stays whole, but we don't mirror Mes - my/mis Polymorphously perverse Connai - to know Whole To mis-know myself No Language Misrecognition vs. mis-knowing I am all and all is me Misrecognize - see something and mistake it for something else No Self/not Other Mis-know - information you assumed was false Sacks of flesh Why is the child mis-knowing? NO control over their body Mirror is just a representation of Self Everything reverse, smaller, narrow, surface, no depth, 2D, forced perspective Being Seen/Eyes - Bodily Control The child sees this image and sees it looking at him Not just looking at him, but that version of him has much more control over itself than he does Becomes IDEAL-I - the "better" version of the Self - a projection, external The perfect Self, the thing you want to become but can't Experiences lack Absence, to be without Ideal-I has no lack - it's whole, it's complete Child has to recognize "I am solo" - I am not the world, I am not everything, I am just this image Self becomes split - turns itself into an object Hostile relationship - Ideal-I is entirely imaginary, you can never achieve it because it doesn't exist Ideal-I is unattainable, but this is normal Lacan says all of us are paranoiac schizophrenia "I am other" External I am lesser because I am not the Ideal-I If the Ideal-I is the Self, then you are not the Self, therefore you are Other As soon as you are Other, you are separated from the world/Real Isolated, alienated from everyone else, alone, going to die Ultimate statement of lack - anytime you speak If you had everything and you weren't separate, you wouldn't need to communicate with anyone Acknowledges that you are not a part of me, we are not linked Develops the imago The homunculus - the Like the Ideal-I, but not version of yourself Words in imago you see in your brain Image, ego, cogito The Scream Image - fiction Ego - protects, defense Cogito - the "complete" moral knowing self - false, part of the fiction Cogito Dei - God Lacan says the imago is the false notion that you know your complete moral self - a defense mechanism of the ego Imago located in the brain - internal Necessary illusion that you have that makes you think that you are whole Precipitate "I" - Lacan says "the I precipitates out" - what you identify with Asymptotic - close to the self, but can never touch Ionic Solution Ionic Solution

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Imago located in the brain - internal Necessary illusion that you have that makes you think that you are whole Precipitate "I" - Lacan says "the I precipitates out" - what you identify with Asymptotic - close to the self, but can never touch Ionic Solution Ionic Solution A result of the dialectic between Self and Ideal-I At a subatomic level, we are lacking When two molecules join - precipitate (I) and also residual fluid (Real) I is not the total Asymptotic relationship - comes close but it can never actually touch The I is a signifier - NOT A REFERENT - it can only ever approximate the Self Lacan asks - is there a referent at all? I is defined by its context, so there can't be a referent I changes constantly Every person is "I" - we always use it, but never try to equate other people's "I" Metalanguage - something everyone has that we're all a part of it - LACK - because we all have I, we all have Lack, and we Lack the referent I is always the subject - performer in action of the sentence, thing/object of study, to submit to We only exist in language Sentence - to be subject to, but also to be the subject that does If you only have access to the Self through language, you'll always be lost to yourself Free Will - "I choose, therefore I am responsible, I am moral" Implies you are subject to it because you are responsible Not "I choose, therefore I desire" Lacan says Free Will is an illusion - other ways to look at Free Will than morality Dialectic - about how change happens Thesis - the way things are, the status quo Thesis has a conflict with the anti-thesis Precipitates into a new Thesis Master/Slave dialectic - fusing Psychoanalysis with Marxism [Master - Ideal I - Thesis] Confrontation with the [construct of the "Self" - Antithesis] New [Master - still Ideal I] You never move past this stage The Ideal-I is always forcing you to remain the same, because it's a hostile relationship always about conflict The Gaze Means - stare, intensely, deeply, with intent to gather knowledge Gaze at - "beauty" Ideal-I is the first gaze - image in the mirror Paranoia - I am always being watched Back to Freud - The Uncanny returns! - also the Superego The Ideal-I is the thing gazing, always watching you The Ideal-I is the self you want to become but you can't Like the superego - what society says you should be Partially Ideal-I, partially social norms and expectations Scocophilia Sexual gratification through the eye Superiority - point out flaws How people act when they think no one else is watching - secrets revealed - other people's vulnerability Power through knowledge attain American past times - watching sports, watching TV, watching movies, youtube, facebook visual of other people In the movie theatre, we are only eyes - do nothing but watch, but your vision's control "inhabiting the Gaze" - you get to be the Gaze EX: Return of Transference - Suture - transference to a film We can only see what the camera sees, but the camera sees everything Camera becomes the Gaze - we are sewn too it, hence suture How this works for the narrative Facism and film - dangerous and pleasurable Social mores, the world of the film, the contradictions that get resolved, and you're sutured to it You get to judge and control it -be the Ideal-I at that time What happens and the fall-out (Recap - the actual powerpoint slide) Self/other Master/slave (Hegel) The gaze (internalized) Mesconnaissance (Signifier as the Real) Imago/Ideal-I The Imaginary (all relations) I lack - I am other - the creation of desire (primary narcissism): I lack myself, I am other to myself A self lost to itself - under the delusion of the I which is forever now only a signifier Symptom Scopophilia
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 Scopophilia Language Think Freud - unconscious only through talking - dreams, slips, jokes, symptoms All we have to represent the Self (speaking is an act of desire) - we are just a ball of signifiers We are dominated by meaning which is always in flux You speak, and you think what you mean is clear, but the listener may not be getting it master/slave dialectic - every time the signified is attached Conflict between the Ideal-I (this is what it means) and the Self (can't really express itself, uncertain of meanings) Also always changing because the master is always changing Master controls what the signified is going to mean Separated from selves and others by language: every act of speaking is a reminder of Lack Real - the impossible to say to access, the real return of the repressed (sublime) As soon as signification happens, child loses the Real FOREVER The signifier is how we access it, but as soon as we have a signifier, the Real is lost because of the signification Language and self - are always lost to the Real Remember Plato/Aristotle - Semiotics - As soon as we create a word for something, it exists to us, but it is also removed/mediated from us The "I" and the "eye" Lots of plays on words The interplay of words of vision and words of knowledge: reflection, insight, illuminate, "I see", "In light of", "Misrecognition/Meconnasance" Connection of knowledge, vision, and light Lacan's Orders Remember Freud's tripartite unconscious Id, Ego, Superego Lacan has these too The Real Inaccessible to us The Sublime - the Referent The Return of the Repressed Uncanny is a confrontation with the real Represents wholeness - master/slave The Imaginary Order created in the Mirror Stage Illusory image of the self as "whole" Ego defense Identification of the fragmented self with the "image" of its whole self The Symbolic The world of signifiers The world of the other Oedipus Complex - the Name of the Father - "No" - prohibition and LAW Other/other Little o - other We can identify with it, we can define ourselves with it It's not me, but enough like me that I can use it to learn about myself Identification, recognition, self-definition Big O - Other Also (M)Other Unidentifiable, utterly foreign Mother holds baby up to the mirror, but the baby has to block her out to form Ideal-I Harbinger of the Real Odd projections: Hostile, cannibal, overly sexual, or wise, has knowledge we do not Cannibals that are going to destroy us OR sweet little smart alien like ET Smart Savage OR Hostile Savage Can demonize or sexualize the other Why this matters? Film Studies Voyeurism Ideal-Is and identification (how reading functions) Anti-existentialism Anti-fascist in an anti-political way What does this mean about gender/sex? Gender and sex are in the symbolic

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