This image is revolutionary for an infant because, prior to this awareness, she only understands her body as snapshots of body parts. In the mirror, however, she sees something greater than the sum of its parts (a “gestalt”); she realizes that these contiguous forms actually belong to a larger concept: a representation of herself, the Ego. It is only after this awareness, this identification, before the infant understands the words that define the self, that narcissism can take place. Freud and Lacan further explain that the infant's gestalt becomes an ideal image of itself that it aspires to for the rest of its life. The pressure of this lifelong aspiration is later deflected once (and if) the infant assumes its first love object in the form of a mother or caregiver. But it is when children consider themselves as objects of love that their mental state becomes