Lacan Theory

Jacques Lacan's theory, states that there is a specific point of childhood, usually between the 6-18 month age, where a baby sees him/herself in a mirror for the first time and has a sudden realisation that they have their own identity. This happens before the linguistic stage of childhood occurs and is the stage of childhood in which the basic needs are all the child wants. This pre-linguistic stage is what Freud would refer to as the 'ID' and focuses solely on the wants and needs. As soon as the linguistic phase of childhood kicks in, the 'ego' begins to develop and the child learns to express their desires in a more socially acceptable way through the use of language as opposed to crying and screaming. During the mirror phase, the child becomes extremely confused as they are viewing themselves as an object for the first time and this sparks an initial identity crisis. When the child first sees their reflection, they begin to form a sense of identity and make sense of the word 'I' for the first time. This sense of identity gives a child a fundamental grounding of how they are going to be as a person. If a child misidentifies what this identity realisation is then it can become fragmented. This means that the initial grounding of personality becomes broken and the child will resort to their surrounding environment to create their personality meaning that they will mould themselves into their carers. It also means that a child will not be able to develop their inner 'ego' and can therefore struggle in life with handling their inner desires in a socially acceptable way. At this stage of life, a baby relies on their parents or caregiver to mould them into people who are socially acceptable and this happens during the linguistic stage in which children are taught to say "please" and "thank you" when they want something as opposed to screaming like a young baby, who cannot talk, would.










This idea of identity will continue on into all stages of life, and Lacan explains that the majority of life is spent searching for the pleasure and convenience of life before the identity stage. Lacan stated that a person's need for this pleasure will fade as they get old and this leads to the calmness and comfort of old age. This idea is always carried into later life and often results in the narcissism and self-absorbed nature of adulthood. Adults focus entirely on their identity and this is why this idea of warped self recognition is often glamourised and used in Hollywood. Horror films often use the idea of self image in their scenes because the idea of losing ones self or looking in the mirror and seeing something you do not recognise, is a common fear amongst adults because it relates to a lack of identity. Horror films often use the Lacan mirror theory and turn it into a physical mirror to use within the scenes as it is the most basic way of visually presenting a lack of identity and this has turned into what can be considered a 'Hollywood cliche'.