On Ego in the Mirror Stage and Its Relationship with Subject

Jacque Lacan's theory of mirror stage is an embryonic framework for his later theoretical development. By using Henri Wallon's outcome of mirror experiment for reference and on the basis of several subjects like neuroanatomy and philosophy, Lacan finally managed to elevate mirror stage to the height of human ontological existence. Therefore, the mirror stage has become a drama of deficiency of structural subjects and unification of imagination. With the help of the mirror stage, Lacan distinguished the polar opposites between ego and subject, and took ego as the illusory misunderstanding, located the objects of psychoanalysis on the unconscious subjects. Such distinction, on the one hand, opposes the view of ego psychology which takes ego as the agent of autonomy; on the other hand, it splits from Cartesian cogito with self-evidence. On this basis, Lacan managed to define the real objects of psychoanalysis, i.e. the unconscious subjects who do not really know they are talking about.