ABSTRACT
Lacan takes the basis of Hegel’s story and applies it to his understanding of contemporary existence. Like the proto-human of the Hegelian myth, Lacan argues, each of us starts out seeking recognition, or seeking love. Lacan has a famous saying that “desire is desire of the Other”. Desire is also the desire of the other, in that we want to be wanted by the Other. The notion of desire as being at the base of what we understand ourselves to be can be understood to be the basis of Lacan’s idea of the mirror stage. Lacan tells how as an infant we each encounter our image in a mirror and experience a combination of jubilation, disappointment, anticipation and antagonism. Lacan is pushing against the notions and positing a considerably less comforting idea that behind the mistaken idea of our self that we glean from the mirror, there is nothing else.
