To sum up, then, the story of the physical mirr or is really a profile of the evolution of psychic process. Understanding that evolution gives us a certain type of handle, a kind of "cultural psychology," as it were . The outlines, for sure, are gross, but the pattern is nevertheless clear enough. The mirr o r is indeed an archetype, but the modem period shows the archetype in its most extreme form. When we talk about the development and diffusion of mirrors, then, we are not merely discussing some aspect of the history oftechnology or of economic history, but the evolution of certain mental structures, specifically of human self-consciousness.