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1.4 The Significance and the Research Design of the Study
Lacan’s “Mirror Stage” theory mainly discusses the relationship between Mirror, Subject, and Other. The interaction among them influences the self-awareness of the Subject. This paper takes granted for the gender of Sarah and considers her as the “Subject”, the traditional principles and rules as the “Mirror”, and the hero as the heroin’s“other” in Lacan’s “Mirror Stage” theory to analyze the influence of the traditional principles and rules on the self-awareness of the heroin. There are four parts in the paper. The first part is an introduction. It gives a brief introduction to the author and his works, focusing on the adaption of The French Lieutenant’s Woman. The second part serves as a general review of Lacan’s “Mirror Stage” theory. The following part intends to analyze the self-awareness of Sarah with Lacan’s “Mirror Stage” theory, and in this part the self-awareness of Sarah is analyzed objectively. The last part comes to conclusion that Sarah gained her self-awareness finally through her efforts and Charles’s help.
2 Jacques Lacan’s “Mirror Stage” Theory
French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Jacques-Marie-Emile-Lacan (1901-1983) has made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis, philosophy and literary theory and has been called "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud."(Macey, 1998) His works influenced many French intellectuals, especially the post-structuralism philosophers. His ideas have had a significant impact on critical theory, literary theory, 20th-century French philosophy, sociology, feminist theory, film theory and clinical psychoanalysis.
2.1 Definition
Lacan's first official contribution to psychoanalysis was the “Mirror Stage”, which he described as "formative of the function of the “I” as revealed in psychoanalytic experience." In this theory, Lacan hypothesized that at six months the baby still lacks coordination, however, the baby can recognize itself in the mirror before attaining control over its bodily movements. The child sees its image as a whole, but this contrasts with the lack of coordination of the body, leading the child to perceive a fragmented body. This contrast is first felt by the infant as a rivalry with its own image, because the wholeness of the image threatens it with fragmentation. Thus the mirror stage gives rise to an aggressive tension between the subject and the image. To resolve this aggressive tension, the subject identifies with the image: this primary identification with the counterpart is what forms the ego. Lacan explains that "the mirror stage is a phenomenon to which I assign a twofold value. In the first place, it has historical value as it marks a decisive turning-point in the mental development of the child. In the second place, it typifies an essential libidinal relationship with the body-image"(Lacan, 2001).
2.2 The Development of Jacques Lacan’s “Mirror Stage” Theory
Based on Wallen’s mirror experiment upon animals and infant as his theory’s scientific support, Lacan researched the experiences of an infant facing to a mirror in unconsciousness terms and transferred a simple psychological experiment into theories of imaginary structure of mankind. Before 1949, Lacan treated “Mirror Stage” as a special phase in an infant’s growth which begins six months after birth and ends at the time when he is 18 months old. But by the early fifties, he no longer considered the “Mirror Stage” as only a moment in the life of the infant, but as the permanent structure of subjectivity. In the paradigm of the imaginary order, the subject is permanently caught and captivated by his own image. As the child grows up, it will continue to make such imaginary identifications with objects, and this is how its ego will be built up. For Lacan, the ego is just this narcissistic process whereby we bolster up a fictive sense of unitary selfhood by finding something in the world with which we can identify. Compared with other psychologists who study the theory of “Mirror Stage”, the creativity of Lacan is that he is deeply aware of the truth that to an infant who is in the period of six months to eighteen months, self-identity of Humanoid Gestalt is a dialectical event and it will drive the man into the road which is imaginary and alienated once and for all. After that man is deconstructive and spilt and he can no longer be a perfect existence, an autonomous subject