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Mirror StageIn Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic theory, the mirror stage is the point in an infant's life when they may recognize their "self" in a mirror. Children before the age of three generally do not recognize their own mirror image as being that of themselves. Thus, Lacan theorized, seeing one's "self" in a mirror is a critical point of development in constructing one's own self image. It is in this moment that it becomes possible for the child to have ego-development. Note, though, that in contrast to humanistic or ego-centered psychology, Lacanian theory declares that it is in the moment of the formation of the "ego" that our pathological fates are sealed. It is the reflexive ability that is garnered by a child's identification of itself with the gestalt of its mirror image which allows it to self-evaluate and self-interpret that is the underlying condition for the possibility of all of the transitivity and aggresivity that characterizes human life. The self is, until the mirror stage (le stade du miroir), seen only in fragments. Thus, the mirror stage allows the self to be seen as a unified whole. The potential relation between facets of the mirror stage and our relation to character archetypes has been explored in depth by theorists of entertainment media - namely literature, film (Laura Mulvey) and computer games (Mathias Fuchs).
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