Beyond The Reflection: The Role of the Mirror Paradigm in Clinical Practice

This is the result of Dr Kernberg's extensive research on a new diagnostic technique in child development: a child's behavior in front of a mirror. Dr Kernberg convincingly demonstrates that this behavior is paradigmatic of the mother-child relationship. The pleasure of self-recognition, or the discomfort and anxiety a child experiences in a front of a mirror is directly linked to the ways he relates to his original looking-glass: the mother, and in turn determines his subsequent sense of self-worth. This fascinating study explores Lacan's pioneering theory of the mirror stage, the correlation between theory, clinical observation and systematic developmental studies, and recent advances in neuroscience and ethology, which contribute to ongoing research in the field of child development and its clinical application. The Kernberg Mirror Behavior Checklist and the Kernberg-Buhl-Nielsen Mirror Behavior Interview, the diagnostic tools utilized in these clinical observations, will be of particular interest to researchers eager to find a concrete basis for studying the origin of selfhood.