Abstract
Let me begin by saying that it is not my intention to totally or even partially reconstruct the entire panorama of different versions of the myth of Narcissus, nor track down literary references throughout various cultures and epochs. Besides the fact that such an enterprise would require an analysis of an infinite number of texts representing many different traditions, what interests us here is a path leading to an understanding of how the myth—in its most well-known classical versions and especially in Ovid’s version, which is perhaps the most complete—continues to throw light on the subject of narcissism, understood as a psychic phenomenon.
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Notes
Here we are referring specifically to the works of Claude Levi-Strauss (among them, La Protière Jalouse, [Paris: Plon, 1985]). In particular, the mythic stories of the Metamorphoses, often compared to a colorful tapestry, knit together new histories. Italo Calvino, in his essay “Indistinti confini” which appeared as a preface to Ovid’s text—in Metamorfosi, ed. P. Bernardini Marzolla, (Turin: Einaudi, 1979), pp. vii-xvi — observes that “the Metamorphoses seek to represent everything worth telling that has been handed down by the literature, with all the power of images and meanings that this entails, without choosing—in accordance with its specifically mythic ambiguity—between possible interpretations” (p. x).
The most famous contemporary writers, following on Lou Salomé and Freud, who have studied narcissism the most, evaluating its various phenomenologies from many different perspectives (according to the theories of Klein, Jung, W. Bion, the Balints, or the attachment theorists, to mention the principal ones) are A. Appeau, A. Green, B. Grunberger, J. Hillmann, H. Kohut, H. Kernberg, H. Rosenfeld, and A. Rothstein. Narcissism, especially as the focus of the “psychology of the Self” movement, is one of the most significant themes in the entire field of psychoanalytic research. Despite their diverse perspectives, the many psychological and psychoanalytical models all define narcissism as a primary relational modality, characterized by a powerful symbolic and fusional tendency that is at the very root of the creative process. Therefore, in no way does it constitute a single phase of psychic development but rather it merges with other relational modalities, maintaining its presence throughout an individual’s life, where it may or may not turn pathological. Seen A. Rothstein ed., Models of Mind, Italian transl., Modelli della mente (Turin: Bollati-Boringhieri, 1990).
Colleen Clements discussed the limits of the extrinsic use of psychoanalytic theories in her analysis of Christopher Lasch’s widely read text The Culture of Narcissism, in “Measuring Psychiatric Models,” Psychoanalytic Review 69 (1982), pp. 283–295; Contemporary Psychoanalysis 23 (1987), pp. 6-59.
Cf. F. Chantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque (Paris: 1974), Vol. III, “Narxissos”, The soporific effect of flowers comes up again and again in classical authors, for example, in Pliny (Naturalis Historia, Vol. XXI, Italian transl., by B. Conte (Turin: Einaudi, 1985), Voll. III/2, [parallel Latin text], p. 158), as well as in the rape of Persephone, as Sophocles mentioned in Oedipus in Colonus (682-688) Italian transl., by D. Del Corno (Milan: Hondodori, 1991) [parallel Latin text], pp. 186-189. Cf. P. Grimal, “Narcisse,” in Dictionnaire de la mithologie grecque et romane (Paris: PUF, 1951); E. Mozzami, “Narcisse,” in Le livre des superstitions. Mythes, croyances et legendes (Paris: Laffont, 1995). Cf. “Narciso,” in Vocabolario della lingua italiana (Rome: IEI, 1989), Vol. III, p. 358.
F. Bettencourt Meyers, Les Dieux grecs. Généalogie (Paris: 1994).
Cf. P. Hadot, “Le Mithe de Narcisse et son interpretation par Plotin,” Nouvelle Revue de psychanalyse (Narcisses), 13 (1976). Cf. J. Hall, Dictionnaire des Mythes et des Symboles, French transl. A. Girod, (Paris: Montfort 1994), p. 275 (“Narcisse”).
J. G. Frazer, Pausanias. Description of Greece (London: 1898); (Pausania, Periegesi della Grecia, 9.31.7).
Still widely used among scholars of the myth of Narcissus is the text by F. Wieseler, Narkissos. Eine kunstmitologische Abhandlung nebst einem Anhang über die Narcissen und ihre Beziehung im Leben, Mythos und Cultus der Griechen (Göttingen: 1856). Cf. B. Manuwald, “Narcissus bei Konon und Ovid (Zu Ovid, Met. 3, 339-510),” Hermes 103 (1975), pp. 349-372. For further bibliography on the myth of Narcissus and his fate cf. also G. Rosati, Narciso e Pigmalione. Illusione e spettacolo nelle Metamorfosi di Ovidio (Milan: Sansoni, 1983), in which he quotes: L. Vigne, The Narcissus Theme in Western European Literature up to the Early 19th Century (Lund: 1967). There is no collection of more recent works.
The quote comes from G. Rosati, op. cit., p. 15.
Calvino claims that Ovid already had gathered “all the tales and bits of tales that flow in every direction, that crowd and push to be channeled into the ordered expanse of his hexameters” (“Introduzione,” p. x). The influence of the myth of Narcissus in poetic and literary texts, and even more within the field of comparative literature, is especially evident in the realm of novels; cf. P. Zweig, L’eresia dell’amor di sé. Storia dell’individualismo sovversivo nella cultura occidentale, Italian transl. R. Pedio (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1984), Part II, pp. 71–119. In this line of investigation, courtly love especially has lent itself to psychoanalytic interpretations. Cf. C. Balandier, “La philosophie de l’amour et du desir au moyen age,” Nouvelle Revue de Psychanalyse (Aimer-Etre aimé) 49 (1994), pp. 149-163.
Cf. M. C. Bateson, “A Riddle of Two Worlds: An Interpretation of the Poetry of H. N. Bialik,” in Daedalus, Summer 1960, pp. 740–762.
G. Bachelard (La poetic de la reverie) La poetica della reverie, Italian transl. (Bari: Dedalo, 1984), p. 212.
F. Huici, Klimt (Madrid: Anaya, 1989), Italian transl. Klimt e la Vienna delle idee (Milan: G. Mondadori, 1989), pp. 5–18, p. 18.
Ovid, Metamorfosi, op. cit., XV, vv. 176-185, p. 612.
P. Bernardini Marzolla, in his “Introduction” to the Metamorfosi, perceptively points out that it is not that Ovid’s works reflect a “Heraclitic way of thinking,” but rather that he uses the Heraclitic formula to introduce the motif of the transformability of all things, which immediately gives “the idea of the universality of the phenomenon of ‘change’” (op. cit.), pp. xvii–lvii, p. xlix. Cf. A. La Penna, “Relativismo e sperimentalismo di Ovidio,” Introduction to G. Rosati, op.cit., pp. v–xxviii, p. xviii–xix.
H. Marcuse, Eros and civilization, Italian transl. Eros e civiltà, L. Bassi (Turin: Einaudi, 1968), (IInd ed.), Chap. VIII, “Le immagini di Orfeo e Narciso”, pp. 183–193, p. 186.
H. Marcuse, op. cit., p. 187.
Marcuse places first an excerpt from the short work, “Le Traité de Narcisse. (Théorie du symbole),” dedicated by Gide to Valéry (in A. Gide, Le retour de l’enfant prodigue (Paris: Gallimard, 1912), pp. 11–25, p. 13) followed immediately by a series of poems from Valéry’s Narcisse parle and the Cantate du Narcisse (Oeuvres, [Paris: 1957] TP, pp. 411) which has the quite stimulating effect of accentuating the atmosphere of the “diminution des traces du péche originel” that he believes characterizes the language of the two authors.
In the same context, Marcuse recalls Bachelard in L’eau et le reves as well as J. Gasquet’s remark, “le monde est un immense Narcisse en train de penser” (ibid., n. 1).
Cf. A. Gutman, “A propos de la représentation de Narcisse chez Poussin,” in Miroirs, Visages et Fantasmes (Lyon: Cesura, 1988); pp. 33–72; Cf. also A. Tagliapietra, La metafora dello specchio (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1991), pp. 44-57 (on p. 72 reference is made to Marcuse).
F. Wieseler traces the connection between Narcissus and Dionysus back to the Orphic myths and relates it to the variously interpreted motif of the specular doubling of a god (Narkissos: Eine kunstmythologische Abhandlung, op. cit., also found in H. Marcuse, op. cit., p. 189 n. 3,)
Cf. P. Zweig, op. cit.
Cf. P. Zweig, op. cit., p. 80.
Ovid, Metamorfosi, op.cit., III, v. 415.
In a certain way, the beloved image, like all “phantasms,” represents a shield between desire and reality. Seen from this point of view, it can function either to inhibit or to stimulate intellectual work—inhibiting when it gets in the middle and stimulating when it tends to encourage investigation. There is a very rich bibliography on the theme of seeing and the relationship between phantasmal fantasies and creative ideation with respect to narcissism. (Cf. G. Bachelard, La poetique de la rêverie, Paris: PaF, 1960); J. Hadamard, An Essay on the Psychology Invention in the Mathematical Field (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1948); S. K. Langer, Feeling and Form. A Theory of Art (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1953), etc.) Speaking of Ovid’s version of the myth, literary criticism has stressed its “working through images”—the visual effect of the narrative’s descriptions of the various scenes seems almost as if conveyed by figurative works of art. All this accentuates the role played by sensitivity, and thus, the emotional impact of the story, with the result that emotion is put back in action along the path of an empathetic and sympathetic understanding. For a philosophical discussion of certain fundamental aspects of this theme, see A. Masullo, “Il fantasma del sé e l’impersonale autoappartenenza,” in Il tempo e la grazia (Rome: Donzelli, 1995) Ch. X, pp. 67-73.
Cf. J.-P. Vernant, (La mort dans les yeux (Paris: Hachette, 1985), Italian transl. La morte negli occhi: figure dell altro nell’antica Grecia (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1987).
On the concept of a unified and indivisible way of being, where the principle of incompatibility has no hold, see I. Matte Blanco, The Unconscious as Infinite Sets. An Essay on Bi-logic (London: Duckworth & Company, 1975), (tr.it. by P. Bria [Turin, Einaudi, 1981]). For the way bi-logic relates to narcissism, see M. Durst, “A Phenomenological Psychology of Emotion. From the ‘Esquisse d’un théorie des émotions’ of Sartre to the Bi-logical Theory of Matte Blanco,” in A.-T. Tymieniecka, (ed.) Analecta Husserliana, (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1999), Vol. LX, pp. 265-276.
It has been pointed out that, in the Metamorphoses, this word is only associated with two other characters, Theseus and Iphis, whose experiences of love border on the pathological (Cf. P. Bernardini Marzolla, “Introduzione,” Metamorfosi, op.cit., p. xxxv).
Cf. P. Zweig, op. cit., pp. 103–111.
W. Shakespeare, Complete Works of William Shakespeare (London: Abbey Library), p. 1071, Sonnet 1.
W. Shakespeare, ibid., Sonnet 3.
Even the fact that the term narcissism itself cannot be precisely defined, presenting itself instead as a semantic constellation, can be related to the intrinsic paradoxical nature of the psychic phenomenon to which it refers; see A. Green, Narcissisme de vie. Narcissisme de mort (Paris: Les Editions de Minuit, 1983), Italian transl. C. Traversa (Rome: Borla, 1992); B. Grunberger, Le Narcissisme (Paris: Payot, 1971), Italian transl. (Rome and Bari: Laterza, 1977); H. Kohut, The Analysis of the Self (London: Hogarth, 1971), Italian transl. (Turin: Bollati-Boringhieri, 1987); idem, The Search for the Self: Selected Writings of Heinz Kohut: 1950-1978, ed. P. Hornstein (New York: International Universities Press, 1978).
So Ovid defines Narcissus when he mentions him in the Fasti (5.225f), op.cit., p. 38.
G. Rosati, op.cit., p. 37.
According to Rosati, this kind of lateralization involves not only the whole Metamorphoses but also most of the classical literature on the myth. It should be added that sociologists tend to use a quite erroneous concept of narcissism, too oriented towards rationality and consciousness, independently of the positive or negative assessment they may express concerning the phenomenon (for typical examples cf. K. Strzyz, Narcisismo e socializzazione, Italian transl. (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1981); C. Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism, Italian transl. (Milan: Bompiani, 1981); for an overall evaluation see M. Durst, “Empatia, socializzazione e sentimenti morali,” Scuola democratica XVIII: 4 (1995), pp. 109-116.
It is interesting that Freud spoke of a “coup de foudre” (in French in the original) in speaking of die Liebe auf der ersten Blick (love at first sight),p. xvi of the introduction to psychoanalysis lessons in Gesammelte Werke XI (Frankfort: Fischer Verlag 1969 p. 250). In the case of Ovid, we could say that the love experiences in the Metamorphoses are basically of the coup de foudre type. (cf. P. Bernardini Mazzolla, “Introduzione,” Metamorfosi, op.cit., p. xxx).
Cf. A. Appeau, Dévelopment du concept d’organisation narcissique (Lyons: Cesura, 1990), C. Athanassion, Aux sources de la vie psychique (Lyons: Cesura, 1990); A Haynal, Dépression et créativité (Lyons: Cesura, 1987). Even long-time logicians consider it necessary to recognize the irreconciliability of paradoxes in order to propose new explanatory modalities.
Cf. Green, Narcissisme de vie. Narcissisme de mort, op.cit.; R. Guy-Gillet, La blessure de Narcisse (Paris: Albin Michel, 1994).
Cf. E. Enriquez, “L’illusion nécessaire,” Tropique, Freudian review, EPI, 37, pp. 141–144.
Cf. L. P. Wilkinson, Ovid Recalled (Cambridge: 1955).
Psychoanalysis’ assumption of the notion of libido that is non-differentiated, unified and present before the separation between the Ego and outside objects is related to the Freudian focus on primary narcissism. This likewise helps to explain its emphasis on a relational modality in which the Ego and the environment are absorbed into one another. Understood thus as “an emotion that embraces the world” (also touched upon in Civilization and Its Discontents, when the “technique of living” “which puts love at the center of everything” is characterized by the simultaneous linking of satisfaction to internal psychic processes and to the outside world, in harmony with “the original, passionate yearning for some definite happiness”), primary narcissism is a constituent part of the Ego in all its phases of development. It is interesting that the only sure philosophy of the Metamorphoses has been referred to as “that of the unity and kinship of all that exists in the world—things and living beings.” (Ju. K. Sceglov, “Alcuni tratti strutturali delle metamorfosi” in I sistemi di segni e lo strutturalismo sovietico, ed. R. Faccani and U. Eco (Milan: Bompiani, 1969), pp. 133–150, cited by P. Bernardini Mazzolla, “Introduzione,” Metamorfosi, op.cit., pp. xxi f.).
Cf. P. L. Assoun, “Au premier regard,” in Nouvelle Revue de Psychanalyse (Aimer—Etre aimé) 49 (1994), pp. 37–57, p. 52.
The quote is taken from A. Masullo, Filosofia del soggetto e diritto del senso (Genoa: Marietti, 1990), p. 76, where it is worked out from a philosophical point of view, with no reference to narcissism.
L. Pfland, “Der Narzissbegriff. Versuch einer neuen Deutung,” in Imago, 21 (1935), pp. 297–310; cited in G. Rosati, op.cit., pp. 39-40, note 90.
The twin motif is not unlike that of the androgyne, which is an intrinsic part of narcissistic eros and which, as such, has been studied in particular depth in the Jungian psychoanalytic tradition. Cf. also A. Green, op.cit., p. 95, where this twin figure is discussed in connection with bisexuality.
The reference here is to the tradition, since Plato’s texts, and especially the Symposium, which have often been studied with regard to narcissism, should be considered independently. (For a philosophical view, see C. F. Alfort, Narcissism [New Haven and London: The University Press, 1988] especially the chapter “Socrates, Eros and the Culture of Narcissism.)”
Paul Laurent Assoun, in his analysis of the coup de foudre experience of love (which he began with the Freudian texts on the subject), defines this form of primary and essentially narcissistic love as “amour en acte” He stresses its instantaneousness and its space/time discontinuity, comparing it to a form of traumatic experience (“Au premier regard,” op.cit.). This traumatic aspect, which immediately recalls the idea of a wound, can easily tip narcissism towards the pathological (as Freud already noted in Civilization and Its Discontents), though without justifying its automatic inclusion in the realm of pathology.
I have dealt with this theme a number of times. See M. Durst, “Anticipazioni del perturbante freudiano in alcuni scritti di Schelling e Hegel,” I problemi della pedagogia 1 (1991), pp. 67–87; idem, “Forme della sublimazione e creatività femminile. II caso Lou Salomé,” in Filosofia. Donne. Filosofie, ed. M. Forcina, A. Prontera, P. I. Vergine (Lecce: 1992), pp. 469-509; idem, “La carezza di Socrate. Empatia e paticità,” Studium 92: 4 (1996), pp. 493-505; idem, “Narcisismo ed ermeneutica contemporanea,” Segni e comprensione X: 28 (1996), pp. 56-73.
The expression “miroir acustique” used by G. Rosolato is quite apt, “La voix: entre corps et langage,” in La relation d’inconnu (Paris: 1974), p. 35. G. Rosati shows very clearly how Ovid’s phonetics and syntax convey the acoustic aspect of reflection, which represents a modulus of continuity in the story. Psychoanalytic studies on narcissism also focus on the link between voice and vision. In fact, the relationship between Echo and Narcissus is simultaneously one of disconnection and of symmetry, insofar as narcissistic eros has “no voice” in its primary form, just as it has no memory and no history. (Cf. P. L. Assoun, “Au premier regard,” op.cit.).
Cf. H. Wolfflin, Renaissance et Baroque, Saint-Pierre-de-Salene (Paris: G. Monfort, 1985), cited in M. Maffesoli, Nel vuoto delle apparenze, Italian transl. by C. Bèguin (Milan: Garzanti, 1993), pp. 190-191.
This same inhibition can set off an intellectual stimulus. In any case, emotion is the “fons et origo of thought”—I. Mattee Blanco, The Unconscious as Infinite Sets, op.cit.; idem Thinking, Feeling, and Being (London: Routledge 1988), Italian transl. P. Bria (Turin: Einaudi, 1998). If it has no way to express itself within the forms of conscious rationality, it produces thickening, clusters or lacerations in thought (and therefore in language and behavior) which lead to various pathological syndromes.
An analogous observation can be found in A. Masullo, Il tempo e la grazia. Per un’etica attiva della salvezza (Rome: Donzelli, 1995), pp. 10–11.
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Durst, M. (2002). On the Threshold of Creativity: A Hermeneutic Interpretation of the Myth of Narcissus. In: Tymieniecka, AT. (eds) The Creative Matrix of the Origins. Analecta Husserliana, vol 77. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0538-8_20
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