Specular Image Research Articles

Identification, recognition and misidentification syndromes: a psychoanalytical perspective

Misidentification syndromes are currently often understood as cognitive disorders of either the “sense of uniqueness” (Margariti and Kontaxakis, 2006) or the recognition of people (Ellis and Lewis, 2001). It is however, necessary to consider how a normal “sense of uniqueness” or normal person recognition are acquired by normal or neurotic subjects. It will be shown here that the normal conditions of cognition can be considered as one of the possible forms of a complex structure and not as just a setting for our sense and perception data. The consistency and the permanency of the body image in neurosis is what permits the recognition of other people and ourselves as unique beings. This consistency and permanency are related to object repression, as shown by neurological disorders of body image (somatoparaphrenia), which cause the object to come to the foreground in the patient’s words (Thibierge and Morin, 2010). In misidentification syndromes, as in other psychotic syndromes, one can also observe damage to the specular image as well as an absence of object repression. This leads us to question whether, in the psychiatric disorders related to a damaged specular image, disorders of cognition can be studied and managed using the same methods as for neurotic patients.

ABSTRACT

The overarching goal of the present study was to trace the development of mirror self-recognition (MSR), as an index of toddlers' sense of themselves and others as autonomous intentional agents, in different sociocultural environments. A total of 276 toddlers participated in the present study. Toddlers were either 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, or 21 months old at their first assessment and completed weekly MSR assessments over a period of 6 weeks (N = 1,577). The toddlers and their families were from one of four sociocultural contexts: A prototypical autonomous sociocultural context (urban German middle-class families, n = 82), two prototypical relational sociocultural contexts (rural Indian and rural Nso families living in subsistence-based ecologies, n = 54 and n = 80, respectively), or an autonomous-relational sociocultural context (urban Indian middle-class families, n = 60). In line with previous research, we hypothesized that the onset of MSR would be earlier in sociocultural contexts in which mothers value and support their toddlers' development of autonomy. In addition, we considered three factors that covary with culture and that might compromise the cross-cultural validity of MSR as a behavioral measure of toddlers' sense of themselves as independent agents: familiarity with mirrors, culture-specific norms of expressive behavior, and motivation for tactile exploration. Finally, we analyzed toddlers' reactions to their specular image (e.g., pointing, playmate, and experimenting behavior) across time and culture as well as their relation to MSR. The results indicate that MSR increased with age in all sociocultural contexts. In line with our hypotheses, MSR rates were higher in the autonomy-supporting cultural context (urban German, urban Indian) than they were in the relational cultural contexts(rural Indian, rural Nso). The sociocultural differences in MSR could not, however, be explained by differences in mirror familiarity or culture-specific norms of expressive behavior. The cross-cultural validity of MSR as an index of toddlers' sense of themselves as independent agents is further supported by positive associations between MSR and pronoun use in all sociocultural contexts. Cross-cultural variation in MSR could best be explained by caretakers' emphasis on autonomous socialization goals, followed by toddlers' motivation for tactile exploration. These findings enhance our current understanding of development in more general terms by adding one more puzzle piece to the emerging picture of culture-specific developmental pathways. In order to understand developmental processes, one must take into account caretakers' cultural models and exercise caution when generalizing beyond the specific sociocultural context at hand.

Specular-based illumination estimation using blind signal separation techniques

Illumination estimation is important in many approaches to colour constancy, where object colour is measured without the effect of the spectral distribution of the illumination. Many illumination estimation methods for achieving colour constancy, particularly those based on the dichromatic reflection model, have performance limitations because they operate on images composed of blended specular and diffuse reflection components, and they may require image segmentation into regions; segmentation is a well-known image-processing challenge. This study proposes an illumination estimation method, which uses constrained blind signal separation anchored on the dichromatic reflection model, connected to a linear model of the illumination spectrum. Unlike conventional methods that use mixed-image components, the proposed method uses a specular image component extracted explicitly by blind signal separation. This can yield better illumination estimates, and blind signal separation can avoid image segmentation problems. Results of experiments show that the proposed method can recover the illumination spectral distribution, and that the extracted specular component yields better illumination estimation than mixed components. Similar results were observed for the two blind signal separation techniques assessed in this study; namely, the spatially constrained FastICA and independent component analysis based on mutual information.

Creating Legal Subjectivity Through Language and the Uses of the Legal Emblem: Children of Law and the Parenthood of the State

This paper constitutes a critical exploration of the functional features underpinning the unconscious of institutional attachment—namely an attachment which is understood in terms of the subject-infant’s love for his institutional parent-power holder, and the indefinite need for a subject to remain within its infantile condition under the parenthood of the State. We venture beyond the Paternal metaphor and move towards the neglected metaphor of the Mother, so focal in the individual process of identification, assumption of language and the permanent attachment to the space of prohibition and Law. A new position in Language is defined. To understand how the psychic space of the infant is artfully subjugated in the making of the Western culture and domination of the Western system of legal interpretation, an enquiry into the legal emblematic history of representations is necessary to map the process through which the subject learns its legal self and relationship with otherness through what Pierre Legendre coined as the Occidental Mirror and the triangular logic of reflexivity. A final enquiry interrogates the way the legal institution places itself in the position of the specular image that captivates the subject-infant within a procreated legal order, a law-giving and law abiding life starting from the laws of the familial structure reinforced by the role of the parents and by analogy, by the State assuming that role in the institutional life of the ad infinitum infant.

Paper Gloss Analysis by Specular Reflection Point Spread Function (Part I)

Glossiness is one of the major qualities of coated paper. For example, coated paper is categorized to glossy or matt. Glossiness can be most usually measured using a glossmeter. The standard units for measurement are “specular gloss”.However it is well known that the “specular gloss” values, in some cases, do not correspond to the glossiness by the visual inspection. In this paper, a new technique for measuring the specular reflection light of paper is proposed. We have developed the apparatus to measure the Point Spread Function (PSF) of specular reflection. A pinhole test pattern is projected to the sample paper, and the reflection light intensity distribution is measured by the two-dimensional CCD camera. The specular reflection PSFs of different type of paper were obtained.Results showed that the specular reflection PSFs of paper meet well with the visual inspection glossiness. We discuss the physical meaning of the specular reflection PSF. The specular reflection PSF works as transfer function for specular reflection image, naturally. In future work, we will discuss paper gloss evaluation by using spatial frequency analysis.

Descemet's Stripping Automated Endothelial Keratoplasty Outcomes Compared with Penetrating Keratoplasty from the Cornea Donor Study

To assess outcomes 1 year after Descemet's stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK) in comparison with penetrating keratoplasty (PKP) from the Specular Microscopy Ancillary Study (SMAS) of the Cornea Donor Study. Multicenter, prospective, nonrandomized clinical trial. A total of 173 subjects undergoing DSAEK for a moderate risk condition (principally Fuchs' dystrophy or pseudophakic/aphakic corneal edema) compared with 410 subjects undergoing PKP from the SMAS who had clear grafts with at least 1 postoperative specular image within a 15-month follow-up period. The DSAEK procedures were performed by 2 experienced surgeons per their individual techniques, using the same donor and similar recipient criteria as for the PKP procedures in the SMAS performed by 68 surgeons at 45 sites, with donors provided from 31 eye banks. Graft success and complications for the DSAEK group were assessed and compared with the SMAS group. Endothelial cell density (ECD) was determined from baseline donor, 6-month (range, 5-7 months), and 12-month (range, 9-15 months) postoperative central endothelial images by the same reading center used in the SMAS. Endothelial cell density and graft survival at 1 year. Although the DSAEK recipient group criteria were similar to the PKP group, Fuchs' dystrophy was more prevalent in the DSAEK group (85% vs. 64%) and pseudophakic corneal edema was less prevalent (13% vs. 32%, P<0.001). The regraft rate within 15 months was 2.3% (DSAEK group) and 1.3% (PKP group) (P = 0.50). Percent endothelial cell loss was 34+/-22% versus 11+/-20% (6 months) and 38+/-22% versus 20+/-23% (12 months) in the DSAEK and PKP groups, respectively (both P<0.001). Preoperative diagnosis affected endothelial cell loss over time; in the PKP group, the subjects with pseudophakic/aphakic corneal edema experienced significantly higher 12-month cell loss than the subjects with Fuchs' dystrophy (28% vs. 16%, P = 0.01), whereas in the DSAEK group, the 12-month cell loss was comparable for the 2 diagnoses (41% vs. 37%, P = 0.59). One year post-transplantation, overall graft success was comparable for DSAEK and PKP procedures and endothelial cell loss was higher with DSAEK.

Le Suspens du roman

The figural ontology that authorises the Jamesian novel is constituted in a specular turn erecting before the subject, as in a mirror, an image of its original—or rather pre-original—dispossession, itself constituted by the faculty of language. Man doesn’t possess language like a property; language, on the contrary, dispossesses him of himself. Mimesis, or, more precisely, the mimetic or specular turn which constitutes the principle of James’s writing converts this intimate dispossession into a figure of the other apprehended (or misapprehended) by the subject as an alienated figure of the self. While the specular image provides the foundation for the Jamesian centre of consciousness (reflector) and a more or less conventional, if highly speculative, narrative structure, the spectral image places the mimetic turn in suspense, rendering visible the turn itself and reflecting without sufficient difference an image of the subject’s originary dispossession. The speculative movement of the narrative itself being thereby suspended—as in “The Turn of the Screw”—the subject of writing is delivered over to the pure repetition of the mimetic turn: the uncanny—Unheimlichkeit—itself. In “The Jolly Corner,” however, while the speculative dynamic of the narrative achieves itself in typical, if particularly apocalyptic, fashion, the figural ontology of the subject is dislocated at its foundation by a moment of suspension giving way to the “supreme” value, or truth, of the novel as a work of art.

1203 複数の光源を用いたイメージスキャナによる光沢を含む物体の形状復元(情報・知能・精密機器,産業・化学機械と安全)

1203 複数の光源を用いたイメージスキャナによる光沢を含む物体の形状復元(情報・知能・精密機器,産業・化学機械と安全)

Corneal specular microscopy in infectious and noninfectious uveitis

Involvement of the cornea endothelium during uveitis has not been extensively studied even though it might participate in or constitute a target of ocular inflammation. Formation of keratic precipitates (KP) is a characteristic finding in several forms of uveitis. The aim of this prospective study was to examine the vicinity of keratic precipitates in infectious and noninfectious uveitis by specular microscopy. Patients with infectious and noninfectious uveitis in any activity level and presence of keratic precipitates were enrolled. The mean age was 40.5 years (+/-14.2 years). A Topcon SP-2000P noncontact specular microscope was used to capture endothelial images in the vicinity of keratic precipitates. Automated morphometric analysis was done for cell size, cell density and cells coefficient of variation. Statistical comparisons were made between the infectious and noninfectious groups. From the 25 patients enrolled in this study, 16 (44%) eyes presented infectious uveitis, 19 (53%) noninfectious uveitis and 1 (3%) eye was excluded due to the impossibility to obtain a specular image. The mean cell density estimated was 2,628+/-204 cells/mm2 in infectious group and 2,622+/-357 cells/mm2 in noninfectious group. The mean cellular area in infectious and noninfectious group was respectively 385+/-31 microm2 and 390+/-60 microm2. The coefficient of variation (%) of the cellular area in the vicinity of keratic precipitates was 26.36+/-3.44 in infectious and 27.69+/-4.61 in noninfectious group. The differences between the groups were not statistically significant (P<0.005/Mann-Whitney test) for the three morphologic variables. The clinical applicability of specular microscopy in patients with uveitis can be an useful tool to evaluate the corneal endothelium in the presence of keratic precipitates, however the handicap of the specular image formation might not be discarded in some cases. The differences found were not clinically meaningful between the infectious and noninfectious groups, however the uveitis in various degrees of intraocular inflammation and the relatively small number of patients in each clinical category of this study, indicates that further studies can be required to evaluate better the morphology of the endothelium.

Anatomia de um caso de dextrocardia com Situs Solitus

Apresentamos um caso raro de dextrocardia em um cadáver feminino com idade aproximada de um ano, apresentando situs solitus. Normalmente, os casos de dextrocardia relatados na literatura descrevem múltiplas malformações cardíacas associadas. No presente estudo, tem grande relevância o fato de não ter sido encontrada uma completa imagem especular do coração e dos vasos da base. Não foram encontradas discordância atrioventricular ou outras malformações intra e extracardíacas que são comumente incidentes em casos de dextrocardia. No entanto, foram encontradas a presença de um grande ducto arterioso, bem como uma posição anômala da parte direita do coração.

Introduction

Self-alienation is a common characterization of various disturbing experiences in patients with schizophrenia. A vivid example comes from patient reports of not recognizing themselves when inspecting their specular image in the mirror. By applying the multisensory paradigm of the Enfacement Illusion, this study empirically addresses the specular Self-Other discrimination in patients with schizophrenia. 35 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and 35 healthy matched controls were enrolled in the study. Results found that the group of patients with schizophrenia had a significant skewed self-other discrimination towards the other at baseline. Furthermore, the effect of visuo-tactile stimulation on self-recognition in the schizophrenia patients was significantly altered after both synchronous and asynchronous stimulation compared to baseline. This contrasted with healthy controls which in line with earlier studies only had significantly different self-recognition after synchronous stimulation. The study thus suggests that patients with schizophrenia have deviations in their specular self-recognition compared to healthy controls. Moreover, that temporal factors in multisensory integration may contribute to alterations of self-related stimuli in patients with schizophrenia.

(G)Aping Women; Or, When A Man Plays The Fetish

(G)Aping Women; Or, When A Man Plays The Fetish Laura Hinton (bio) To gape (intransitive verb): to gaze stupidly or in open-mouthed surprise or wonder. Gape (noun): unfilled space or extent. —Merriam Webster's The text is a fetish object, and this fetish desires me. —Roland Barthes1 This paper began as a look at my attraction to Cary Grant. But it evolved into an analysis of Lucille Ball's nose. I wanted to ask: what happens when a female spectator looks at a man with desire? When a man plays the fetish, is his presumably heterosexual female spectator "aping" or imitating "man" looking upon his specular image, thus mimicking the cultural male gaze? Does her "ape" therefore reveal the gape in the classic Hollywood text of female desire—or does it reflect a woman's specificity? But I also wanted to ask: What distinguishes a male from a female fetish body, "the body of desire," to quote Christian Metz, whose "presence" stands in for the absence reproduced by the cinematic apparatus and its image?2 In its classic psychoanalytic definition, the fetish is a substitute for the missing maternal phallus, enabling the child to disavow his traumatic sight of "lack."3 Fetishism itself, as Laura Mulvey writes, is that "sequence of events" initiated specifically by male castration anxiety and its disavowal of sexual difference.4 So can a man play the fetish? Contemporary discussions about masculinity's representation in Hollywood suggest that men do, but with a difference.5 To be "a man," the male screen figure must project narcissistic ideality and control, as Steve Neale notes in his study of masculine spectacle. The larger-than-life masculine ideal exudes a confident "intact" ego, which distinguishes [End Page 174] a glamorous male from his female-fetish counterpart, whose tie to "lack" yields "little intrinsic value."6 Marc Vernet writes that "she" is but a "sign of an attempt to represent in the form of an object something that has disappeared or indeed never existed [the female phallus]."7 The female fetish is ever presented through cinematic shots of body fragmentation alternating with those that display her body's over-valuation through female masquerade. Cultural femininity's masquerade preserves the male gazer's disavowal, privileging "belief over knowledge," Metz concludes.8 Yet when a man plays the fetish, his particular "body of desire" complicates the cycle of disavowal and belief. The male figure cannot be articulated through a female-style fragmentation, but rather must reconfirm male narcissism's "construction of an ideal ego," in Neale's words.9 Still, if the male body is rarely subject to castration's "'set of processes' tied to . . . figural lack,"10 the male fetish must necessarily bear his own contradictions, hinting at its glamorous masquerade. So, linked to notions of feminine duplicity, the man who plays the fetish is the ultimate coquette: a narcissistic perfectionist who also undermines the Hollywood masculine ideal by hinting at erotic ambiguity and bisexuality. Through the crisis of cultural masculinity that ensues, the figure of the male fetish mirrors the visual ironies of the female spectator. These ironies I conceptualize as a "gap(e)," the figural "O" as "unfilled space or extent" that marks the impossibility of women's visual desire but also its potential placeholder in the Hollywood entertainment text. The female (g)ape might be dramatized by a woman starring in a film, who stares at the mesmerizing male fetish of her dreams with a wide (g)aping mouth. More ubiquitously, however, the female (g)ape is what women in front of the screen experience, not only in the implicit absence of their desire but in its reminder through the (g)aping look itself. The (g)ape is an ironic figure that encodes the visual conundrum of the female spectator as she peers at her desired object, in this case, a male fetish, which thus projects back the female spectator's own bisexuality and erotic oscillation. While the male fetish may represent bisexual desire, so, too, does the female look. As Mary Ann Doane has explored in her groundbreaking work on female masquerade, the female look is inherently bisexual—women "vamp it up," or cross...

Anomalies in the low CMB multipoles and extended foregrounds

We discuss how an extended foreground of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) can account for the anomalies in the low multipoles of the CMB anisotropies. The distortion needed to account for the anomalies is consistent with a cold spot with the spatial geometry of the local supercluster (LSC) and a temperature quadrupole of order $\ensuremath{\Delta}{T}_{2}^{2}\ensuremath{\approx}50\text{ }\text{ }\ensuremath{\mu}{K}^{2}$. If this hypothetic foreground is subtracted from the CMB data, the amplitude of the quadrupole ($\ensuremath{\ell}=2$) is substantially increased, and the statistically improbable alignment of the quadrupole with the octopole ($\ensuremath{\ell}=3$) is substantially weakened, increasing dramatically the likelihood of the cleaned maps. By placing the foreground on random locations and then computing the likelihood of the cleaned maps we can estimate the most likely place for this foreground. Although the 1-year WMAP data clearly points the location of this hypothetical foreground to the LSC or its specular image (i.e., the vicinity of the poles of the cosmic dipole axis), the three-year data seems to point to these locations as well as the north ecliptic pole. We show that this is consistent with the symmetries of the cosmic quadrupole. We also discuss a possible mechanism that could have generated this foreground: the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect caused by hot electrons in the LSC. We argue that the temperature and density of the hot gas which are necessary to generate such an effect, though in the upper end of the expected range of values, are marginally consistent with present observations of the X-ray background of spectral distortions of the CMB.

Light source position and reflectance estimation from a single view without the distant illumination assumption

Several techniques have been developed for recovering reflectance properties of real surfaces under unknown illumination. However, in most cases, those techniques assume that the light sources are located at inifinity, which cannot be applied safely to, for example, reflectance modeling of indoor environments. In this paper, we propose two types of methods to estimate the surface reflectance property of an object, as well as the position of a light source from a single view without the distant illumination assumption, thus relaxing the conditions in the previous methods. Given a real image and a 3D geometric model of an object with specular reflection as inputs, the first method estimates the light source position by fitting to the Lambertian diffuse component, while separating the specular and diffuse components by using an iterative relaxation scheme. Our second method extends that first method by using as input a specular component image, which is acquired by analyzing multiple polarization images taken from a single view, thus removing its constraints on the diffuse reflectance property. This method simultaneously recovers the reflectance properties and the light source positions by optimizing the linearity of a log-transformed Torrance-Sparrow model. By estimating the object's reflectance property and the light source position, we can freely generate synthetic images of the target object under arbitrary lighting conditions with not only source direction modification but also source-surface distance modification. Experimental results show the accuracy of our estimation framework.

An evaluation of image quality and accuracy of eye bank measurement of donor cornea endothelial cell density in the Specular Microscopy Ancillary Study

The Specular Microscopy Ancillary Study was designed to examine donor corneal endothelial specular image quality, compare the central endothelial cell density determined by eye banks with the endothelial cell density determined by a central specular microscopy reading center, and evaluate donor factors that may have an impact on specular image quality and endothelial cell density accuracy. Nonrandomized comparative trial. Endothelial specular images of donor corneas assigned in the Cornea Donor Study. Certified readers assessed donor image quality (analyzable from fair to excellent vs. unanalyzable) and determined the central endothelial cell density. Independent adjudication was performed if there was a difference in the quality of grading or if the endothelial cell density varied by > or =5.0% between readers. Average reading center-determined endothelial cell density was compared with the endothelial cell density determined by each eye bank. Evaluation of image quality and accuracy of endothelial cell density. Of 688 donor endothelial images submitted by 23 eye banks, 663 (96%) were analyzable (excellent, 40 [6%]; good, 302 [44%]; fair, 321 [47%]), and 25 (4%) were unanalyzable by reading center standards. In situ retrieval and greater epithelial exposure correlated with a higher image quality grading. The eye bank-determined endothelial cell density of 434 of the 663 (65%) analyzable images were within 10% of the endothelial cell density determined by the reading center, whereas 185 (28%) were more than 10% higher and 44 (7%) were more than 10% lower. Greater variation in endothelial cell density between the eye banks and the reading center was observed with shorter time of death to preservation, presence of an epithelial defect, folds in Descemet's membrane, lower image quality, and the use of fixed-frame or center method endothelial cell density analysis. Overall, donor endothelial specular image quality and accuracy of endothelial cell density determination were good. However, the data suggest that factors that may affect image quality and contribute to variation in interpretation of the endothelial cell density should be addressed, because the donor endothelial cell density is an important parameter for assessing long-term corneal graft survival.

“Daughter-Somatoparaphrenia” in Women with Right-Hemisphere Syndrome: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Neurological Body Knowledge Disorders

Disorders of discourse and behavior—in particular anosognosia and somatoparaphrenia—may be associated with body schema neurological disorders in the right-hemisphere syndrome (RHS). From a psychoanalytic point of view, the content of the patient’s discourse may be considered an alteration of the unified conception an individual has of him/herself—that is, of what Lacan called specular image. After presenting the specificities of the Lacanian conception of specular image, we consider its heuristic value in the RHS field, based on three detailed observations of women with anosognosia and hemineglect. Each of the three patients personified her paralyzed hand as being or belonging to a daughter, whether real or imagined. We propose considering this symptom as a disclosure of the object (in the accepted psychoanalytic meaning of the term) that is normally repressed. We briefly discuss how these observations indirectly shed light on the mind-brain problem.

Contra the Slovenians

Often an entire article can be summed up in a quote. Lacan said in his eleventh seminar: The death of structuralism, you are the son of Hegel. I don't agree. I think that in saying Lacan against Hegel, you are much closer to the truth, though of course it is not at all a philosophical debate.1 Although the work of what ostensibly could be called the Slovenian School of Lacanian Studies2 (one names here the work of Slavoj Zizek, Mladen Dolar, Alenka Zupancic, et. al.) has explained the work of Jacques Lacan in an unprecedentedly clear manner, demonstrated the relevance of Lacan for current theoretical debates, and shown how Lacanian theory can be applied to various social and political phenomena, their reading of Lacan via German Idealism and German Idealism via Lacan risks transforming Lacanian psychoanalysis into a discourse of self-consciousness rather than a discourse on the psychoanalytic, Freudian unconscious. In this manner, the very scandalous rupture that Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis affected in thought and in culture (that it thinks without and for me) is in jeopardy of being foreclosed through a to German Idealism's discourse of self-consciousness. Here, Lacan functions as a screen in order to rehabilitate the theses of German Idealism that psychoanalysis itself put into question. In particular, the risk is that Lacan will be transformed into that ultimate German Idealist, Hegel. Slavoj Zizek announces the program of a to (as opposed to Lacan's return to Freud?)3 in his book (although it informs the entirety of his work) The Sublime Object of Ideology: to accomplish a kind of 'return to Hegel'-to reactualize dialectics by giving it a new reading on the basis of Lacanian psychoanalysis. The current image of Hegel as an 'idealist-monist' is totally misleading: what we find in Hegel is the strongest affirmation yet of difference and contingency-'absolute knowledge' itself is nothing but a name for the acknowledgment of a certain radical loss. Such a 'return to Hegel' not only risks mis-reading Hegel as Lacan avant la lettre, but (and more importantly for us) risks reading Lacan as Hegel (and repeatedly throughout the work of Zizek Lacan is shown to make a perfectly Hegelian gesture or move). For Zizek, such a to Hegel via Lacan is authorized insofar as Lacan misunderstood the nature of self-consciousness: why Hegel? Unfortunately Lacan too quickly identifies self-consciousness with self-transparency, and the very condition of the notion of self-consciousness in German Idealism is that you are inaccessible to yourself. It's a positive ontological condition. To be self-conscious, you must be void, you must not be accessible to yourself as what you arc. So we have a certain radical gap defining self-consciousness. The subject of self-consciousness is literally S barre.5 Although the entire work of Lacan has shown how the unconscious remains opaque to consciousness insofar as it thinks independently of and for me, self-consciousness, according to Zizek, is actually about non-transparency to self rather than transparency. For Lacan, according to his 'mirror stage,' one reaches a sense of self (self-consciousness) via the projective, specular image of the other (in other words, via an opaque, externalization/alienation). One's ego (self-awareness) is thus constituted in relation to an alienated image that is in turn sublated into a reciprocal, symmetrical, and transparent other. In fact, the other here is so transparent that one assumes the other knows one's mind ('you know what I mean'). Although Lacan further moves to an understanding of the subject as subject of the symbolic order, such a subject is a subject of meaning rather than consciousness insofar as one is aware of oneself only through the discourse of the Other. In addition, while in Hegel there may be an initial moment of the dialectic wherein one is unaware of what takes place within one, such a moment is quickly transcended in order to see how what was alien is really the self (so that self-transparency is established). …

L'image du corps en neurologie : de la cénesthésie à l'image spéculaire. Apports cliniques et théoriques de la psychanalyse

In neurology, the terms body schema and body image currently refer to two different body representations. These representations are meant to allow humans individuals to automatically adjust their bodies to space in sensorimotor activities and also have a semantic knowledge of their bodies and their body–space relationships. The term body image is also used in psychoanalysis, in a quite different maner. From the psychoanalytical point of view, body image is one of the registers of identity and the Other’s regard plays a primordial role in the subject's acquisition of this identity. The crucial role of this gaze appears in the term specular image. After reminding the reader of history and the predecessors of these terms, we consider the implications of the concept of specular image in neurology. We show that neurological pathology may have effects upon specular image, up to and including a disorganization of the structure of specular image when brain lesions affect body schema. This perspective permits to find out a coherence and a logic in some psychiatric-like symptoms of right hemispheric brain lesions.

Parity-violation effect on vibrational spectra

Weak nuclear coupling between the nucleons of a molecule and its electrons causes the energy and electronic wave function to be different for two enantiomers of a chiral molecule, i.e., for two molecules which are the specular image of each other. Although this effect has been known for some time, its magnitude is so small that all attempts made so far at measuring it experimentally have failed. We report in this paper computational estimates of vibrational frequency shifts due to parity-violation energy near or above current experimental resolution. Our findings indicate that an experimental evidence of parity-violation effects in molecular systems is within reach.

Asomatognosie et troubles de l'oralité. Une lecture psychanalytique

Objective: The psychoanalytic concept of specular image refers to the complex construction that associates the body image with the language coordinates of the individual, thus making him/her a human subject. The acquisition of this specular image implies the loss of corporeal exchanges between mother and child, i.e., the “neutralization” of those body parts or extensions where these exchanges take place. These conceptions of body image and subjectivity lead to the hypothesis that neurological disturbances of body schema may alter the patients' subjectivity and their relation to the lost “object” insofar as they alter body image. Material: In the present paper, we present two patients aged under 50, with a unique first ever stroke due to ischemia in the right middle cerebral artery territory and asomatognosia. Methods: On one hand, Bisiach's protocol was used to assess hemiplegia, sensory troubles, visual troubles, hemineglect and anosognosia, and adapted to assess asomatognosia. On the other hand, subjective data were gathered during a semistructured interview and a self-portrait test. Results: This showed that asomatognosia was accompanied by a destructuration of body image and aberrant oral manifestations involving the paralyzed hand. Discussion – Conclusion: The psychological positive phenomena accompanying asomatognosia might correspond to the intrusion of the lost object in the patients’ psychic reality, due to the alteration of body schema and body image.