The gaze is a psychoanalytical term referred to the individual’s condition of becoming anxiously aware that he or she can be viewed. Realizing that he or she is a visible object and can be viewed at a certain period, a person can lose some sense of autonomy and act according to the expectations of potential viewers and make attempts to produce certain effects upon them. This psychological effect is closely linked to Lacan’s theory of the mirror stage which refers to a certain period of personal development in which a child encounters a mirror and understands that he or she has an external image that others can see.
Similarly, the gaze effect can be produced by any conceivable object, such as a chair, a table, a doll, and so on. Regardless of the fact that these objects cannot behave as a mirror, an individual looking at them realizes that he or she is a conceivable object as well.
After the mirror stage, in which an individual realizes that he or she has an external appearance, children use their mirror image to coordinate their physical movements and produce the desired effects upon the viewers. The gaze effect can also be transformed into a dialectic relationship between the individual’s Ideal-Ego and Ego-Ideal. Shaping a certain desirable image (a rock star or a superhero saving somebody’s life), a person can dream of an Ego-Ideal (somebody who is selected as a desirable viewer – a friend or a competitor) gazing at Ideal-Ego and becoming aware of his or her future success.