2022/01/26 by Kiti Misha
#Freud #Frosh #disorder #modernity #narcissism
paper · doi:10.5526/esj72
Narcissus - themythological character whose self-obsession resulted in his undoing - providedthe namesake for a series of personality disorders that have become synonymouswith our modern culture. The description of Narcissus lamenting his self-loveand his unfortunate reality, as exhibited in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, has manysimilarities with the particularities of the narcissistic disorder: awarped subject-object relationship, megalomania, pathologic self-love, and asadness and anger reflected at an inability to connect in a healthy manner withthe rest of humanity, as well as a self that is “worn away little by little bythe hidden fire”. This essay follows the development of the disorder, pointing out some new worrying trends that are emerging in the present.