Drowning Daffodils

By Not the Territory · Aug 3, 2020 · 849 · 2
  1. Lately I've been seeing narcissism as a misnomer, not only for the fact that it's become a catch-all term for neurotic behaviour in general.

    I think the story of Narcissus and Echo is a greater caution for the latter. To very broadly sum up the 20th and 21st pervasive 'narcissist:' he has a strong narrative about himself and does insane things to project/protect that image. Grandiose or otherwise (sorry, DSM gets an F from me), the story he's trying to serve is not objective truth, and he tries to propagate via pretty shallow methods.

    But Narcissus was the most beautiful man, he was the best hunter. Narcissus wasn't starved of identity. The modern 'narcissist' is. Who can only copy archetypes? Who has no substance (body) of their own? Who is unreasonably enchanted by those that do have a strong self?

    Narcissus rejected the love of others overall because he was blinded by love for himself (except for Echo, he was revolted by her because she appeared to be entirely lacking individuality). Those we call narcissists today reject the love of others because they don't have a self. They are not narcissists. They are echoes.

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  1. Friedrich Kugelschreiber
    Lots of mythological analysis going around the blogs. Your perspective is very interesting; I think you may be correct, although the modern psychological conception of narcissism is certainly not the original and has probably strayed somewhat from the traditional view. That is to say, I think historically most people simply understood "narcissist" to mean "one who is infatuated with himself." After all, there is probably a reason that Narcissist inspired the name that he did; and Echo displays none of the self-infatuation that is required for narcissism.
    Friedrich Kugelschreiber, Aug 3, 2020
      Xoic and Not the Territory like this.
  2. Malisky
    Another analysis: Echo was a reminder of his loneliness, his inability to connect with others. He was stuck in his head and had no image for himself except when he stared at his idolon in the calm surface of the water, meaning he couldn't self reflect on his own, thus his means towards it couldn't be anything more than superficial.
    Malisky, Aug 3, 2020
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