Alexandre Kojève

Jacques Lacan’s theory of development explains how infants mature psychologically. The stages of his concept include the Imaginary, the Mirror, and the Symbolic. The first is where children begin to understand control. Babies learn to manipulate their environment as an extension of their own base needs and desires. There is no separation between the baby and the outside world. Following the discovery of control, infants undergo the Mirror stage, where they learn to recognize their own image in a mirror as something they can control, but as a separate entity. Then the child loses their power in the Symbolic stage to an authority figure. Lacan claims the father reveals the limited power the infant actually has. The child cannot control this outside entity and begins to realize their place in the world is not as powerful as they thought. When the infant loses their perception of dominance, Lacan introduces his theory of “the real”. After a child lives with the assumption that they are in control, they think that this is the true reality or “the real”, but “the truth” is that the infant is merely another human, and is not supreme. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: the Modern Prometheus (1818), the Creature is “born” fully developed of body, but not of mind; therefore, even though he is fully grown, he still needs to mature through Lacan’s stages. Furthermore, the Creature’s search for “the real” provides psychological implications behind his actions implying the need to…

Lacanian theory is controversial almost everywhere it goes. Agree or disagree, there is no shortage of discussion on the validity of Lacan’s work. His concept of the “mirror stage” (or phase) is one of the most significant theories in film study. However, the theory itself opens some interesting doors in terms of its definition. In an age where self-definition has become more important than ever, it must be discussed that Lacan’s mirror phase is no longer just one moment in the development of…