the stage in development occurring around 6 to 18 months of age when the infant becomes able to imagine himself or herself as an autonomous ego in the image of the parent and also starts to recognize his or her reflection in a mirror. That is, the child begins to acquire a self-image. French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (1901–1981), who introduced the phrase, saw this as marking the start of the infant’s transition from the realm of the Imaginary to that of the Symbolic. See also name-of-the-father.