Lacan and The Mirror Stage

Lacan's idea of the mirror stage first came about due to his critical reinterpretation of Sigmund Freud's work. He proposed that infants go through a stage in which an external image of the body, such as a reflection, produces a psychic response that gives a mental representation of the 'I'. The infant identifies with the image on the same level but perceives them as an 'Ideal I', an image to strive towards throughout their life. Lacan believed this to be part of our psychological growth and we essentially create this ideal image of ourselves is all part of a drive to make sense of the world.