"GAZE"

Jacques Lacan was a French philosopher who pioneered the idea of the "gaze," the look at an outside, desired object (objet petit a). Although not always or necessarily, "gaze" usually has the connotation of sexual desire. It also has reflexive properties:

"Lacan tells us that the object of the scopic drive is the gaze, that pre-existing staring from the world at/towards the subject, situating him or her in a place and time and desire. The gaze is an object that is impossible to grasp, impossible to apprehend and within which it is impossible to find satisfaction...Indeed, this pre-existing gaze in the world in the world is read by the infant as the mother who stares into the infant’s eyes. A glint, a pre-existing staring at us that nonetheless does not see. The gaze, once it has been apprehended by the subject, catches him or her in his/her desire, a desire to be completely seen, that is, to be seen as desiring and as desired. The gaze is not the act of looking, nor is it contained in what the subject looks at, but rather it is the moment of circular recognition that pinpoints the subject as a desiring being.is read by the infant as the mother who stares into the infant’s eyes. A glint, a pre-existing staring at us that nonetheless does not see. The gaze, once it has been apprehended by the subject, catches him or her in his/her desire, a desire to be completely seen, that is, to be seen as desiring and as desired. The gaze is not the act of looking, nor is it contained in what the subject looks at, but rather it is the moment of circular recognition that pinpoints the subject as a desiring being."1

 

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