THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

3.2 Double Whammy: Mixed Doubles The Avatar in Panamaimaginary identification with its reflection initially generates a narcissisticsense of self-unity, however this is contrary to what the childexperiences and the cause lies in the mirror’s properties of distortionand deception. The recognition is imaginary because the reflectedimage is in direct opposition to the child’s real experience. The initialencounter with the reflection is at once positive and negative: the imagepresented in the mirror is of a completely cohesive and coordinatedcharacter, a misleading two-dimensional reflection far removed fromthat which the subject feels. The creation of this misrecognised sense ofidentity, a false sense of self, is a split that stays with the individualforever, is carried throughout adulthood and becomes the basis for allsubsequent experiences of interpersonal relationships. 117 Thisconstructed self is an idealised projection and this premise hasimplications for the emergence of doubles as the manifestation itselfproduces a self-destructive streak common in most protagonists inliterature of the double. 118Lacan’s mirror stage theory is influential as it provides anaccount of how something outside the self, the mirror, is able to definethe contours of the self which does not exist. During this developmentalstage the child recognises itself as self when it sees itself as other --asa reflected object in the mirror-- as if it were someone else andconsequently comes into being as an alienated object. 119 Paradoxicallythis unifying moment occurs as a rupture: the subject is required toseparate their image from the object as to assume it as their own, themirror image needs to be viewed as distinct from the individual. Identityis therefore alienating because what gives a sense of wholeness ofidentity is in fact the split into two. For Lacan, there is no unity withoutthis division as subject identity is constituted on the basis of this split. 120Unlike Freud, Lacan’s self is constituted from without and allperceptions of it are structured according to an external image; thus thesense of self is merely a reflection of itself. So if the self does not exist,neither does the mirror image double. There is no depth or interior toLacan’s conceptualisation of the mirror as it is a flat surface reflectingtwo dimensions and has its origins in otherness; the self is therefore adelusion.117 Elliott, Concepts of the Self 53-55.118 “The perception of oneself out there as a unified whole in contrast with the internalsense of oneself as a fragmented and disordered agglomeration, results in thesimultaneous formation and alienation of the self. This produces a dialectic of identity:a jubilant recognition of oneself and the aggressive wish to destroy that self since itsapparent wholeness evokes a threatening sense of inner fragmentation anddeficiency.” Evans, “Introduction to Jacques Lacan's Lecture”: 393-394.119Elliott, Social Theory and Psychoanalysis in Transition: Self and Society from Freudto Kristeva (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992) 127-128.120 Juliana de Nooy, “Reconfiguring the Gemini: Surviving Sameness in Twin Stories”AULLA 36.219