This image is revolutionary for a child because, prior to this realization, he understands his body only as snapshots of body parts. In the mirror, however, he sees something greater than the sum of its parts (a “gestalt”); she realizes that those contiguous shapes actually belong to a larger concept: a representation of herself, the Ego. Only after this realization, this identification before the child understands the words that define the ego, can narcissism take place. Freud and Lacan further explain that the child's gestalt becomes an ideal image of himself to which he aspires for the rest of his life. The pressure of this permanent aspiration is diverted later once (and if) the child takes on his first love object in the form of a mother or a caregiver. However, it is when children see themselves as love objects that their mental state becomes