AI as a Mirror: Investigating Identity Crisis from a Lacanian-Eriksonian Perspective

نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی

نویسنده

دانشگاه کردستان، دانشکده زبان و ادبیات، گروه آموزشی زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی

10.22034/lda.2026.145900.1136

چکیده

This theoretical study analyzes the role of artificial intelligence (AI) companions in the formation of human identity. Drawing on Lacan's mirror stage and Erikson's ego identity, the research examines how constant interaction with AI tools may function as a digitized external mirror, shaping self-perceptions, ego development, and the trajectory of identity formation. While Erikson establishes identity formation as a lifelong psychosocial process, Lacan's mirror stage offers a structural account of how selfhood originates through external reflection—and is thus inherently vulnerable to misrecognition. Integrating these frameworks, this study proposes the concept of algorithmic misrecognition: a process whereby computationally inferred, error-prone responses from AI companions shape self-perceptions in ways that may lead to semi-self formation or identity crisis. Although AI companions may facilitate daily tasks, provide emotional support, or aid self-exploration, their mirroring function thus operates as a double-edged process. This paper addresses a gap in the literature where AI has been analyzed primarily as a technological device rather than a techno-social phenomenon actively shaping selfhood, and aims to provide implications for future empirical and interdisciplinary research on AI-mediated identity processes.

کلیدواژه‌ها

موضوعات

فایل ها

هم رسانی

ارجاع به این مقاله

آمار