Towards the end of the reading Lacan explores what the theoretical model of the mirror stage and its implications about the nature of what the mind can contribute to an understanding of human experience in present-day society. Lacan suggests that modern life is increasingly organized along the lines of a concentration camp geared almost exclusively toward production careless of individual concerns.
However to certain extent existentialism and psychoanalysis share the same idea of what it means to be human neither of them tend address anything like a transcendent "soul"; both of them play upon the mortality and materiality of human existence, Lacan accuses existentialism of promoting the naive conviction that humans can achieve a direct, conscious knowledge of their condition. For Lacan, our knowledge of our existence is always mediated through the system of imaginary psychic and social relations that structure our sense of self in the first place. Again turning to the work of Anna Freud on the ego, Lacan suggests that the operation denial is fundamental to the misrecognitions that structure our experience of ourselves and of reality. These distressing "truths" about my nature form the id of ourselves, puts a large amount of pressure on our conscious and the way in which we think about ourselves and our appearances.
If we imagine the "I" formed in the mirror stage as a kind of internal fortification against the forces of the id, on the one hand, and, on the other, as the defensive suit of armor in which the subject ventures into the world, we can understand what Lacan means by the inertia – a tendency to do nothing and remain unchanged that is characteristic of this "I". Bent on maintaining its fragile integrity, the ego can easily come to terms and experience that the world is in fact a hostile environment, and attempts to remain static in the midst of the dynamic and potentially destructive events of the daily life of the mind as we are constantly bombard with images from the media. The result of this is in fact emotional distress and behavioral problems such anxiety and obsessions which can lead into compulsive behavior which may not seem apparent but is in fact there as we are constantly trying to change one thing or another about us as we see someone else there that we consider better in our mind. Incidents of this is when we break down and the subject can no longer distinguish the internal from the external world, when the external world now has full control of the ego. In so fourth as the ego maintains itself relating logical discussion of ideas and opinions with the id and with the world outside, forms stress are hard for humans to avoid. What psychoanalysis reveals, Lacan suggests, is the madness of everyday life, the endless psychic distress that characterizes and shapes the human mind.
Lacan repeats this thought in a manner consistent with Freud's perspective on psychoanalytic theory: the psychoanalyst's observations of the experiences of neurotic and psychotic patients afford insight into the operations of the "normal" mind. These insights, moreover, indicate that there is in fact no "normal" mind the socially elaborated idea of "normality" is, in fact, one of the misconstrued ego and, as an unattainable characteristic of the Ideal-I. Like anthropology, a discipline to which Lacan frequently refers psychoanalysis occupies the no-man's-land between physical nature and the "culture" that human beings create for themselves out of material and mental structures. Caught up in libidinal bonds with its own image and with other human beings, the ego's life, and the collective life of the culture in which the ego participates is conquered by desire, need and wants, which Lacan refers to as "love." Here, this love refers in particular the transference relationship between the patient and the analyst, one of the fundamental elements of psychoanalytic therapy.
The dance piece Zero Degrees performed by Akram Khan and Sidi Larbi translates Lacans the Mirror Stage very well. This clip shows a series of excerpts from the piece that shows and emphasizes the control in which society have on our mind and body is 1.09 –
A particular excerpt of this clip which i want to draw your attention to is when the ideal body which is projected onto the mannequin and Akram Khan move together in unison. It is as if the mind and body are both now non – existent! This is also shown by the two main figures laying lifeless on the floor; the figures cannot or will not think for themselves anymore- it more of a routine – a controlled aspect of our life. This in turn creates the idea that we think subconsciously without even knowing that we are doing it - it is something that we are now so used to. Sibi represents the ego, who has control over what we feel and see about the ideal body and Akram who goes along with every movement reflects what ideal body does for example if the mannequin goes left Akram will also goes left. This is suppose to mimic our way of thinking, we see something that is “perfect” we will set out to reach this goal and we go about it in every way possible and we become so obsessed with doing so that we in fact think it is normal and we no longer recognize our own behavior .
Lacan frequently compares psychoanalysis to a mystery religion in which, at a certain point in the ritual, a secret truth is revealed. The psychoanalytic session can bring us to the point where we realize that to be human is to be subject to a desires that cannot be fulfilled. What is striking about Lacan's vision of analysis is that he does not suggest that one accommodates themselves to this disappointment, that they"make do" with the norms imposed by society and culture, but rather that they find a way to be less disabled by the dialectic of desire that structures my being.