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[[File:Lacan-opticalmodelPhantom Bouquet.jpg|thumb|Lacan's optical schemaPhantom Bouquet experiment (from Hopkins, 1890)]][[Lacan]] borrowed his [[optical]] [[schema]] from [[physics]]<ref>Berkeley Physics Demos, [https://web.archive.org/web/20200119145017/http://berkeleyphysicsdemos.net/node/723 Phantom Bouquet: Real image from a concave mirror]</ref><ref>Hopkins, George M, ''Experimental [[Science]]: Elementary, [[Practical]] and Experimental Physics'', Munn & Co (1890), p. 211</ref>. He used it to illustrate the [[role]] of the [[real]] [[Other]] in constructing both the [[body]] and the [[specular]] [[image]] as the [[model]] for the ego.
Lacan introduced this schema in his [[seminar]] of 1953-1954, on <i>[[Seminar I|Freud]]'s Papers on [[Technique]]</i>. He took his cue from [[Freud]]'s reference to an optical schema in T[[The Interpretation of Dreams|''The Interpretation of Dreams'']]<iref>he [[InterpretationFreud, Sigmund]] (1900a), ''The [[interpretation]] of [[Dreamsdreams]]''. SE V p. 536</iref>:<blockquote> ([[Optics]] could also have its say. At this point I find that I'm not in disagreement with the [[tradition]] established by the [[master]] - more than one of you must have noticed in the ''Traumdeutung'', in the chapter 'The [[psychology]] of the [[dream]]-process', the famous schema into which Freudinserts the entire proceedings of the [[unconscious]].<ref [[name]]=":0">[[Lacan, 1900a, pJacques]]. (1988). 536; ''[[The Seminar]] of [[Jacques Lacan]], Book I, Freud's Papers on [[Technique]] (1953-541954)''. (John Forrester, 74-76Trans.). New York: Norton. p. 74</ref></blockquote>Lacan first used the schema to illustrate the reciprocal play of the [[Real, the (Lacan)|real]], the [[imaginary]], and the [[symbolic]] in Melanie [[Melanie Klein]]'s [[case]] of "Little Dick."<ref>[[Klein]], Melanie. (1930). ''[[The importance of symbol-formation in the development of the ego]]''. International Journal of [[Psycho]]-[[Analysis]], 11:24-39</ref>[[File:Lacan-opticalmodel.jpg|thumb|Lacan's simplified optical schema]]Because of the optical properties of concave mirrors, a bouquet of flowers that is hidden from the [[visual]] field of the viewer emerges above the vase. And if the eye of the viewer is properly placed, an image of flowers in the vase is produced as a [[whole]] or a [[unity]].
In the [[virtual]] [[space]] beyond the mirror, a [[specular image]] is created, <i>i</i>′ <i>(a)</i>, and this is where the baby as [[subject]] recognizes the image as its ego. This represents the [[dimension]] of radical [[alienation]] in ego [[formation]] as it occurs in relation to the image of a fellow being—a [[process]] that is specific to secondary [[narcissism]] and the [[ideal]] ego.
This version of the schema presented two [[principle]] modifications:
Lacan used the plane mirror in two different ways. Sometimes it referred to the mirror of [[the mirror stage]], still very much centered on the [[structuring]] [[character]] of the image itself. And sometimes it referred to a mirror without a reflection, that is, a [[representation]] of the Other's [[gaze]]. Indeed, our [[understanding]] of this schema has been modified [[retroactively]] by the introduction of the [[concept]] of the [[big Other]]; nevertheless, it is still most often [[understood]] in its strictly intrapsychic dimension.
Professor of [[Psychoanalysis]] at Ghent [[University]] Stijn Vanheule has put together a YouTube video demonstrating how the optical [[illusion]] of the inverted vase Lacan discusses in [[Seminar I]] works.<ref>Vanheule, Stijn. (2015). [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmsFv24LaDg Jacques Lacan's double mirror device]. YouTube.</ref>
==See Also==
* [[Topology]]
==ReferencesReference==
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