the mirror stage
E707182
The mirror stage is a psychoanalytic concept by Jacques Lacan describing the formative moment in early childhood when a child identifies with their reflected image, shaping the ego through an illusory sense of unity and self.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| the mirror stage canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8058692 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: the mirror stage Context triple: [Jacques Lacan, notableIdea, the mirror stage]
-
A.
Speculum Hominis
Speculum Hominis is a Middle English allegorical poem by John Gower that explores moral and religious themes through an extensive mirror-for-mankind framework.
-
B.
Done with Mirrors
"Done with Mirrors" is a 1985 hard rock album by Aerosmith that marked the band's reunion with guitarist Joe Perry and a transitional period before their major late-1980s comeback.
-
C.
Girl before a Mirror
Girl before a Mirror is a famous 1932 Cubist painting by Pablo Picasso depicting a young woman contemplating her own reflection in a fragmented, colorful mirror.
-
D.
Sky Mirror
Sky Mirror is a large, concave stainless-steel outdoor sculpture by Anish Kapoor that reflects and distorts the sky and surroundings like a giant mirror.
-
E.
Woman with Mirror
"Woman with Mirror" is a painting by Colombian artist Fernando Botero that depicts a voluminous female figure gazing into a mirror in his signature exaggerated, rounded style.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: the mirror stage Target entity description: The mirror stage is a psychoanalytic concept by Jacques Lacan describing the formative moment in early childhood when a child identifies with their reflected image, shaping the ego through an illusory sense of unity and self.
-
A.
Speculum Hominis
Speculum Hominis is a Middle English allegorical poem by John Gower that explores moral and religious themes through an extensive mirror-for-mankind framework.
-
B.
Done with Mirrors
"Done with Mirrors" is a 1985 hard rock album by Aerosmith that marked the band's reunion with guitarist Joe Perry and a transitional period before their major late-1980s comeback.
-
C.
Girl before a Mirror
Girl before a Mirror is a famous 1932 Cubist painting by Pablo Picasso depicting a young woman contemplating her own reflection in a fragmented, colorful mirror.
-
D.
Sky Mirror
Sky Mirror is a large, concave stainless-steel outdoor sculpture by Anish Kapoor that reflects and distorts the sky and surroundings like a giant mirror.
-
E.
Woman with Mirror
"Woman with Mirror" is a painting by Colombian artist Fernando Botero that depicts a voluminous female figure gazing into a mirror in his signature exaggerated, rounded style.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
psychoanalytic concept
ⓘ
theoretical construct ⓘ |
| ageRange | approximately 6 to 18 months ⓘ |
| centralTo | Lacanian theory NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| concerns |
constitution of the I
ⓘ
early childhood development ⓘ formation of the ego ⓘ |
| contrasts | imaginary unity with bodily fragmentation ⓘ |
| critiquedBy | some developmental psychologists ⓘ |
| critiquedFor | lack of empirical grounding ⓘ |
| emphasizes |
the exteriority of the ego’s foundation
ⓘ
the gap between lived body and seen body ⓘ the role of the image in subject formation ⓘ |
| field | psychoanalysis ⓘ |
| formulatedBy | Jacques Lacan NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| fullyFormulatedIn | 1949 ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Gestalt psychology
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
phenomenology ⓘ |
| introducedIn | 1930s ⓘ |
| introducedInWork | The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I Function as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| involves |
alienation in the image
ⓘ
identification with the specular image ⓘ illusion of bodily coherence ⓘ imaginary unity of the body ⓘ jubilation at recognizing the image ⓘ misrecognition of the self ⓘ recognition of one’s reflection in a mirror ⓘ |
| keyConcept |
Gestalt of the body
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
alienation ⓘ ego as misrecognition ⓘ fragmented body ⓘ identification ⓘ imaginary order ⓘ méconnaissance ⓘ specular image ⓘ |
| languageOfFormulation | French ⓘ |
| opposes | notion of a pre-given, coherent self ⓘ |
| positsThat |
self-identity is based on misrecognition
ⓘ
the ego is formed through identification with an external image ⓘ the ego is fundamentally imaginary ⓘ the subject experiences itself as unified via the mirror image ⓘ |
| preparesFor | entry into the symbolic order ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
critical theory
ⓘ
developmental psychology ⓘ feminist theory ⓘ film theory ⓘ philosophy of the subject ⓘ post-structuralism ⓘ |
| statusInLacan | revised and reinterpreted across Lacan’s seminars ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: the mirror stage Description of subject: The mirror stage is a psychoanalytic concept by Jacques Lacan describing the formative moment in early childhood when a child identifies with their reflected image, shaping the ego through an illusory sense of unity and self.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.