Reflection and individuation

Nevertheless, we should be careful not to dismiss reflection as simply self-admiration. The instance of someone looking in the mirror may be an elementary example of self-reflection where the realisation of self is the essence of thinking. We must recognise that reflection and a sense of self are inextricably linked. Narcissism is a normal developmental state when the child separates from her mother, forms her own identity and comes to think of herself as a separate person. As Lacan has argued in his psychoanalytic theory of development, the process of individuation occurs when the child views a reflection of herself in the mirror and perceives herself to be different from her mother; Lacan coined this the mirror image stage. This mirror stage is where the reflection of self is crucial for human development, and, if not successfully achieved, will result in a pathological state in adulthood where the individual lacks any sense of self. Lacan notes that the process of a child seeing his or her own reflection in a mirror is the first conscious act of thinking as an individual.

We could interpret reflection, on the one hand, as a form of self-reflection, and if we accept this then we can loosely talk of reading and writing the self. Such an interpretation might then lead to questions about self-knowledge in the professional sense. Ultimately, how is it possible to separate us from the cultural practices of the self, that is, those practices that constitute us? What, then, is professional self-reflection?