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The mirror as Metaphor is ubiquitous in language, art, history, myth, and dream. What can depth psychology and, more specifically the psychoanalytic theory of development, contribute to an understanding of the timeless mirror symbolism that permeates all these realms of human expression? We begin with the observation of infant researchers that, even moments after birth, the newborn seeks out the mother's eyes and face as the initial source of information and confirmation. When the newborn is presented with a variety of pictures, for example, it will invariably fix on the picture with a human face (Cohen & Salapatek, 1975; Brazelton, 1980; Lamb & Sherrod, 1981). When the caregiver is receptive to the infant's search gaze, orchestrating her voice, posture, and facial expression in response to the infant's exploratory visual gestures, a remarkable synchrony between the two results; researchers behold striking periods of in-tuneness between mother and infant, in which the latter contentedly gazes into the pool of tranquilizing reflection embodied in the former. The psychoanalytic theory of development imparts meaning to such observations by suggesting that the mother is the first “mirror” of the infant and, by implication, the first mirroring validator of the infant's dawning self-awareness. It is because the mother's eyes and face are the primordial