THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

3.1 Shoes and Mirrors: Images of Doubling The Avatar in Panamaque je le fais chaque jour en me regardant (94-95). 21In this case the reflection is returned but its disappearance mayalso allow for a substitution image to be shown, or the reflection itselfmay transform as in Jaramillo Levi's “El olor”.What is the significance of the loss of the reflected image inpsychiatric terms? Doubt about reflections as doubles and the actualityof mirror images may reign in literature because the surroundingconfusion and loss of rationale portrayed by the characters is firmlyrooted in the quotidian and based on valid psychiatric definitions. 22When a subject believes the person they see in the mirror is not in facthimself or herself but someone who bears an uncanny similarity, theyare suffering a delusion of mirrored-self misidentification. 23 Mirroragnosia or a loss of understanding of how mirrors work is oftenattributed to madness. In these instances the subject believes thatevents witnessed in the mirror are happening in a separate locationfrom the location where the events are occurring in the mirror. So whenthe subject sees himself, it is someone who looks like him but is in adifferent location from him. 24 Thus, metamorphoses or transformationsare often products of psychiatric disorders or mirror agnosia wherelooking glass literature is concerned. If the mirror transforms withoutone’s active participation or the subject is unable to avoid possibletransformation, or if the emphasis is on the beholder’s personal reactionto the reflected image, or a primarily emotional transformation, then theinfluence of the magical power of the mirror is at work. 2521 “How frightened I was! Then, all of a sudden, I began to see myself in a mist at theback of the mirror, as if I were looking through a sheet of water; and it seemed to methat this water was slowly gliding from left to right, so that my reflection was becomingclearer every moment. It was like the last stage of an eclipse. What was hiding me didnot seem to have clearly defined outlines, but a sort of opaque transparency, growinggradually lighter. Finally I was able to see myself completely, as I do every day when Ilook in the mirror” (341). Compare this quote with Jaramillo Levi's “Testigo”: “Lassombras se fueron haciendo luz en mis costados y poco a poco se fue clareando micentro” (131).22 “The difficulty in taking these utterances as expressions of beliefs can be seen toflow from the fairly widely accepted idea that the attribution to people of beliefs isgoverned by a constraint of rationality or reasonableness.” Martin Davies and MaxColtheart, “Introduction: Pathologies of Belief”, Mind and Language 15 (2000) 2.23 Davies and Coltheart 32. For more information see the case study example ofmirrored-self misidentification in. “Towards an understanding of Delusions ofMisidentification: Four Case Studies”, Nora Been, Diana Caine, Max Coltheart, JulieHendy and Corrine Roberts. Mind and Language 15 (2000) 82-84.24Davies and Coltheart 32.25 Grabes 132.167