Abstract

All of Lacan's major articles on the mirror stage were written before 1953. This means they predate his characteristic insertion of the unconscious into language and accompanying ejection of biological causes out of psychoanalysis. Thus the mirror stage articles still propose a direct causal link between non-myelination of portions of the human infant's brain and development of the ego as an alienated structure. ;However, most existing commentaries on the mirror stage fail to mention the contradiction between this early attempt to link psychic structure to the infant's anatomical condition at birth and Lacan's later rejection of all such biologically based explanations. This thesis makes it a point to alert the reader to this contradiction by exposing in detail the biological orientation of the mirror stage articles. The bankruptcy of Lacan's attempt to trace psychic structure to an infantile experience of "the body in pieces" is also demonstrated. ;In the years between 1953 and 1966, Lacan himself saw the need for substantial modifications to the original mirror stage theory. These changes are recorded in "De nos antecedents" . Again, most commentaries fail to mention this article or the fact that it must be read in conjunction with the earlier mirror stage writings. The thesis undertakes to investigate the nature of the changes which are outlined in "De nos antecedents," among them the shifting of responsibility for psychic structure away from an anatomical lack onto a lack which Lacan says is much more critical: the ontological manque a etre