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

Document Type : Persian Research Article

Author

PhD candidate in English Language and Literature, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran.

Abstract

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.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

Barnes, E., and J. Hutson. “AI and the Cognitive Sense of Self.” Journal of Intelligent Communication, vol. 3, no. 1, 2024, pp. 35–51. https://doi.org/10.54963/jic.v3i1.320.
  Bhat, Maalvika. “Toward an Ethic of Synthetic Relationality: Identity, Intimacy, and Risk in AI-Mediated Roleplay Environments.” Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society, vol. 8, 2025, pp. 416–29. https://doi.org/10.1609/aies.v8i1.36560.
  Brečka, Tibor. "Human–Artificial Intelligence Relationships in Lacanian Perspective." International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 2026. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/aps.70047.
  Campbell, Scott W., Nicole B. Ellison, and Morgan Quinn Ross. “Extending the Self through AI-Mediated Communication: Functional, Ontological, and Anthropomorphic Extensions.” Communication and Change, vol. 1, no. 1, 2025, p. 3. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44382-025-00003-2.
  Chubarov, I. M., et al. “The Digital Other: Problems of Identity in the Artificial Intelligence Paradigm.” International Research Journal, no. 3(141), Mar. 2024. https://doi.org/10.23670/IRJ.2024.141.54.
  Demirci, M. “The Talking Mirror: Subjectivation and Digital Reflections in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” Society, 2026 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-026-01193-1
  Erikson, Erik. Childhood and Society. W. W. Norton & Co., 1950.
  Erikson, Erik. Identity: Youth and Crisis. Norton & Co., 1968.
  Erikson, Erik. The Life Cycle Completed. W. W. Norton & Company, 1982.
  Evans, Roy, and Olivia Saracho. The Influence of Theorists and Pioneers on Early Childhood Education. Routledge, 2022. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003120216.
  Friedman, Lawrence J., and Pilar Damião de Medeiros. “Erik Erikson on Negative Identity & Pseudospeciation Extended and Particularized by Ta-Nehisi Coates.” Crimson Publishers, 2020, pp. 458–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.31031/AAOA.2019.03.000575.
  Gonçalves, Jorge. “Is Lacan’s Theory of the Mirror Stage Still Valid?” Journal of Psychology Research, vol. 2, 2012. https://doi.org/10.17265/2159-5542/2012.07.005.
  Horii, Umerasundasu. "Delegated Personhood: Understanding How Algorithmic Mediation Shapes Perceived Identity Authorship." PsyArXiv Preprints, 2025. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/yzc7h_v1.
  Joseph, Jeena. “The Algorithmic Self: How AI Is Reshaping Human Identity, Introspection, and Agency.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 16, 2025, 1645795. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1645795.
  Kouros, T., and V. Papa. “Digital Mirrors: AI Companions and the Self.” Societies, vol. 14, no. 10, 2024, p. 200. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc14100200.
  Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. 1st ed., Routledge, 1980. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003209140.
  Lu, Christina, Jackie Kay, and Kevin McKee. “Subverting Machines, Fluctuating Identities: Re-Learning Human Categorization.” Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT '22), 2022, pp. 1005–1015. https://doi.org/10.1145/3531146.3533161.
  Lungu, Bogdan-Andrei. "Machines Looping Me: Artificial Intelligence, Recursive Selves and the Ethics of De-Looping." AI and Society, vol. 41, no. 3, 2026. PhilArchive, https://philarchive.org/rec/LUNMLM.
  Parsakia, Kamdin. “The Effect of Chatbots and AI on the Self-Efficacy, Self-Esteem, Problem-Solving and Critical Thinking of Students.” Health Nexus, vol. 1, no. 1, 2023, pp. 74–75.
  Possati, L. The Algorithmic Unconscious: How Psychoanalysis Helps in Understanding AI. 1st ed., Routledge, 2021. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003141686.
  Rahman, Mohammad, et al. “On the Role of Personality in Attitudes toward AI: Do AI’s Freedom of Choice and Social Proof Matter?” 2025. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6565909/v1.
  Roche, Jonathan V. A. “The AI Mirror: A Lacanian Reading of Emerging Digital Psychosis.” Medium, 2025, https://medium.com/@joe.metaverse/the-ai-mirror-a-lacanian-reading-of-emerging-digital-psychosis-d30570977c8c.
  Santo, Wells Lucas. “Facing Identity: The Formation and Performance of Identity via Face-Based Artificial Intelligence Technologies.” arXiv, preprint arXiv:2410.12148, 2024.
  Sharma, Shivali, et al. "Conversational AI and Personal Growth: Insights from a Critical Integrative Review." Behavioral Sciences, vol. 16, no. 5, 2026, article 756. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16050756.
  Shasliani, Shasliani, and Riko Septiantoko. “The Social Construction of the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Learning and Character Formation.” JIPSINDO, vol. 12, no. 2, 2025, p. 6. https://doi.org/10.21831/jipsindo.v12i2.252530.
  Stets, Jan E., and Peter J. Burke. “Identity Theory and Social Identity Theory.” Social Psychology Quarterly, vol. 63, no. 3, 2000, pp. 228–29. https://doi.org/10.2307/2695870.
  Tadimalla, Sri Yash, and Mary Lou Maher. “AI and Identity.” arXiv, preprint arXiv:2403.07924, 2024.
  Wang, Jinchang. “Self-Awareness, a Singularity of AI.” Philosophy, vol. 13, no. 2, 2023, pp. 69–75.
  Yao, Ruiqi, et al. “Connecting Self-Esteem to Problematic AI Chatbot Use: The Multiple Mediating Roles of Positive and Negative Psychological States.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 16, 2025, 1453072.
Literary Discourse Analysis
Volume 3, Issue 3 - Serial Number 10
September 2025
Pages 43-66

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 23 September 2025
  • Revise Date: 17 October 2025
  • Accept Date: 18 October 2025
  • Publish Date: 21 October 2025

Share

How to cite

Statistics