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Reflections on ‘Reflections on Mirroring’

Malcolm Pines’ seminal article, ‘Reflections on Mirroring’ (1982) is discussed in a special journal edition honouring and expanding upon his life work. In ‘Reflections’, Pines elaborates on the mirror as metaphor for human experience using clinical material as well as references to mythology, literature, and natural science. The present author reviews Pines’ commentary on ‘mirroring’ as it bears upon both personal growth and human destructiveness. He then considers the advantages and limitations of the mirroring concept in understanding social and group development. The mirror has become a metaphor for contemporary concepts in psychoanalysis such as empathy, attunement, attachment, and intersubjectivity, where emphasis is placed on ongoing interactions, rather than memories and representations as such. Since neuroscience increasingly supports the related concept of the ‘social brain’, the author discusses recently discovered ‘mirror neurons’ and the notion of the ‘ego tunnel’ as they relate to Pines’ ‘Reflections on Mirroring’, especially regarding group-as-a-whole dynamics and the ‘group illusion’.