Abstract

GODOY, Luciano Marcondes. Mirrors, reflections, reflexions (Part I). J. psicanal. [online]. 2010, vol.43, n.79, pp.101-115. ISSN 0103-5835.

I consider the strangeness that mirrors are able to arouse in us. I compare the cold glass mirror with the living mirror of a mother’s look. In the mirror, we search for what we couldn’t find in our mother’s look. The basis for these reflections derives from this analogy and I underline the experiences of imprisonment throughout this searching. Primal intrauterine and birth experiences are also considered as possible registers of this search in the mirror’s virtual space. I attribute to memory the psychic function of transforming physical stimuli, such as light, in libido, and I allude to Schreber’s case for some considerations. I comment on the importance of the impossibility of seeing ourselves directly. The symbolic function is emphasized as the element that promotes the possibility of dis-imprisonment from the mirror. I also question whether the inner world glitters in the mirror. I find in Valiéri Briússov and Guimarães Rosa a universe of feelings aroused by the act of looking into the mirror.

Keywords : Mirror imprisonment; Self-image; Virtual space; Specular image; Unconscious memory.

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