You never look at me from the place which I see you

You never look at me from the place which I see you
An approach to Jacques Lacan’s concept of The Gaze

Abstract:

The intention of this essay is to interpret Lacan’s concept of the gaze and to enhance the definition by connecting it to Foucault’s construct of the panopticon. My first task will be to construe the gaze through a visual metaphor, the mythical house portrayed in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho. This image allows me to ground the concept through a visual example, but also gives me the possibility to relate it to complementary concepts, such as Michael Foucault’s Panopticon.  Both Lacan and Foucault were keenly interested in the psychological implications of vision, and through the metaphor put forth by Hitchcock’s house, one can bring their enouncements to the study of photography.

The old house in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is a constant presence in the film. It is located at the top of a hill, where it oversees the motel, the confined universe of Norman Bates. For him, the house represents his ever-present mother, and her relentless vigilance of his actions. Setting aside the more complex connotations put forth by this thriller, the main reason for me to choose the image of the house is to evidence both the visual and psychological implications of Lacan’s gaze. Bates anxiously stares at it, and he is aware (hence the connection with Lacan) that he is looked back in return. He is the object for the scrutinous, repressive gaze of his mother, metaphorically present in the house and its imaginary inhabitant.

Writen as part of the MA Photography: Contemporary and Historical, at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London.