Galadriel’s Mirror-and Winnicott’s, and Lacan’s by John Rosegrant, PhD (Psychoanalytic Explorations)

Lacan and Winnicott both believed that mirroring was very important in early development, but focused on different aspects and outcomes. Lacan theorized that when a young child first views her reflection in a mirror and sees her image as complete, her anxiety about her actually undeveloped and unintegrated state is relieved; henceforth she imagines herself as this perfected version rather than as the unintegrated subject that she really is. This process inaugurates the “Imaginary register”, roughly equivalent to what Anglo-American analysts call the realm of narcissism, but in Lacan’s conceptualization always involving profound alienation from reality. Winnicott thought of mirroring in terms not of the child encountering herself in an inanimate object, but in terms of her encountering herself in the gaze of the mother. Although Winnicott thought that this process could lead to a false self (roughly analogous to the Imaginary) if the mother’s gaze primarily gave back her own demands for the child, he also believed that with a good-enough mother invested in the child’s own needs, mirroring would promote development of a true self comfortably integrated with reality.

The Mirror of Galadriel plays a crucial role in JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. In the spirit of Freud’s statement that creative artists anticipated all the concepts of psychoanalysis, I will look into Galadriel’s mirror to see in what ways it reflects Lacan, in what ways it reflects Winnicott, and whether it reveals something else entirely.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will assess Lacan’s mirror stage and the Imaginary register.
• Participants will assess Winnicott’s concept of mirroring.
• Participants will apply literary expression of these concepts in Tolkien’s writing.

FREE EVENT

Fee for 2 CME credits: $15 for NOBPC members; $25 non-members

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and NOBPC. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 2.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: None of the planners and presenters of this CME program have any relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Psychologists and Social Workers may also receive continuing education credit for this activity if their accredited associations or boards recognize CME credits.