Was Narcissus a Narcissist?
Was Narcissus a
Narcissist?: The Ancient Myth and Dissociative Identity Disorder
By Denise Noe
The ancient Greek myth of
Narcissus -- he who fell in love with his own reflection in a river and pined
to death from unrequited love -- has, of course, come down to us as a parable
about vanity. His name is synonymous
with conceit. However, I believe that
there are other, equally plausible, modern interpretations of the meaning of
Narcissus.
In the version of this tale
described by Pausanias, Narcissus fell in love with an image he
did not know was himself.
Believing he saw a "beautiful waterspirit," he was disappointed
because the loved one fled when he tried to kiss it/him. Thus, in this version of the myth, it was not
love of self but a delusion of otherness that caused Narcissus to pine to death
from what he imagined was unrequited love.
Pausanias comments incredulously that, "it is utter stupidity to
imagine that a man old enough to fall in love was incapable of distinguishing a
man from a man's reflection."[1]
Perhaps not. The failure to recognize oneself, or parts of
oneself, is a symptom of several illnesses.
In dissociative identity disorder -- formerly known as multiple
personality disorder -- it is the
defining symptom. This very rare mental
illness is, of course, easily sensationalized and readily lends itself to
drama. Most of the public is familiar
with it through the Joan Woodward movie The
Three Faces of Eve and the best-selling book and equally famous made-for-TV
film starring Sally Field, Sybil.
According to the American
Psychiatric Association's Fourth Edition Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, "the essential feature of
Dissociative Identity Disorder is the presence of two or more distinct
identities or personality states that recurrently take control of
behavior." The sufferer's
conviction that her/his own personality states belong to another is strikingly
akin to Narcissus's belief that his reflection is another person.
Narcissus's delusion of
"otherness" may also be also analogous to physical illnesses of the
autoimmune system in which the "biochemical substances in your blood that
normally protect you from infection, attack a part of your body"[2]
because it "believes" those parts to be foreign. The fatal heartbreak which killed Narcissus
could be seen as his soul's "attack" upon a self which could not
recognize itself.
The crisis of the Narcissus story
as depicted in Ovid's Metamorphoses,
is diametrically opposed to that in the legend known to Pausanias. In Ovid's masterpiece, Tiresias prophesies
that, "if he but fail to recognize himself, a long life he may have."
Even here, however, Narcissus
fits the diagnosis of narcissist quite imperfectly. The diagnostic criteria for narcissistic
personality disorder include a tendency to "exaggerate achievements and
talents" and to "require excessive admiration," as well as being
"envious of others." Ovid's
Narcissus does not exaggerate his own beauty but knows correctly that he is
beautiful. Far from "requiring
excessive admiration," he is annoyed by the admiration he gets. Knowing himself so loved and admired, he is
hardly "envious of others."
Narcissus does meet one of the
diagnostic criterion for narcissism. He
certainly "lacks empathy for others," as shown by his cold rejection
of Echo. She "strives to wind her
arms around his neck. He flies from her
and as he leaves her says "Take off your hands! you shall not fold your arms around me. Better death than such a one should ever
caress me!" Similarly cruel rebuffs
of other suitors of both sexes lead Nemesis to put the curse on him which
causes him to fall in love with his own reflection.
At his moment of epiphany, Ovid's
Narcissus recognizes himself, telling himself that, "this that holds your
eyes is nothing save the image of yourself reflected back to you." This knowledge plunges him deep into despair
for Narcissus cannot be content with admiring himself, hugging and touching his
own body, and masturbating while viewing his own loveliness. He wants that special sense of intimacy that
comes from loving and being loved by another.
Pausinias knew the tragedy of Narcissus
as stemming from a crazy kind of ignorance; Ovid described it as the fruit of
sad self-knowledge. However, neither
depicted with exactitude what we now call a "narcissist."
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