‘Unable as of yet to walk or to stand up, and held tightly as he is by some support, human or artificial, he nevertheless overcomes, in a flutter of jubilant activity, the obstructions of his support, and fixing his attitude win a slightly leaning forward position … brings back an instantaneous aspect of the image. (‘The Mirror Stage’, translated by Lionel Bailly)
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan was a riotous figure on the psychoanalytic scene in his day. His concept of the mirror image was a fundamental contribution to psychoanalysis.
Essentially the idea is that, when you are born, you are not aware of yourself as your own being, your own self. It is only after a certain development of cognition, that you can finally become aware of yourself as a separate being and ‘recognize’ yourself in the mirror.
(This can also be linked to a popular thread in psychology, being that when you are a baby, you literally cannot distinguish between yourself and your mother, you think of yourself as your mother, and when you grow up and become separated from her, you are constantly looking for your ‘other half’, in the form of a romantic/sexual relationship to recreate the level of intimacy and interdependency experienced as a baby.)
Through this painting I tried to capture the confusing notion that the ‘self’ may feel like to the developing cognition. Attempting to place different parts of personality in relation to one another, perhaps not fully aware of the body, and a little bit mystified by ones own face.
