Skip to main content

Narcissism

 




With the word Narcissism much spoken recently, I thought I'd go back to the story – the real one, I was going to say, but the 'real' story is, well, as of course we all know, not true: it's really (!) no more than a story...

This all gets a bit complicated – not least the story itself, along with the concept of reflection, giving as it does a true version of that which is reflected, yet not 'true', for the very act of reflection reverses – and so alters.

(I'm especially aware of this, my wife being a printmaker – that which she carves in the wood when printed looks quite different, even though it's a direct print from the block).

Be all that as it may, the Narcissus story is much deeper than the superficiality of the reflection, whatever it shows.

So much so, that it's given its name to a psychoanalytic concept of great depth and complexity, as demonstrated by my friend Jeremy Holmes' masterly monograph on Narcissism*. He makes the point that the term can be used in a number of distinct ways, describing a lay, sociological and psychoanalytic sense which he then further subdivides.

Fascinating (and useful) as I find these discussions, I've returned to the image – the picture of the beautiful youth enraptured and fatally captured by his own beauty.





Reflection

 

Suddenly glimpsed

who can this beauty be?

He stared and he stared

as his eyes opened wider

the moment prolonged

as his eyes opened wider

he stared and he stared

who can this beauty be?

Suddenly glimpsed

 

Love sprang like a fountain

he tried to draw nearer

but could not approach

the moment prolonged

present slipped past

the moment prolonged

but could not approach.

He tried to draw nearer

love sprang like a fountain.

 

Her words rang back again

calling his name

but she was no longer.

Gradually pining

he became rooted

gradually pining

but she was no longer

calling his name

her words rang back again

 

Unheard by a flower.

The water runs still

voices have faded

youth’s wasted away

though beauty remains.

Youth’s wasted away

voices have faded

the water runs still

unheard by a flower.

 

 


 

*Narcissism Jeremy Holmes Icon Books 2001

ISBN 1 84046 245 0

 


Comments

  1. Anonymous1 August 2022 at 19:01

    Thank you - very elegant!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous1 August 2022 at 21:23

    Beautifully balanced palindrome poem Richard. Lovely mirroring.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rake Daddy Rake

  As with lots of good stories, there are many versions. Basically this one's about a pair of Wiltshire yokels raking a pond for kegs of smuggled brandy.  They feigned lunacy when surprised by the excise men, saying that they were trying to rake out the full moon which was reflected in the water.  Their ruse was successful. The officials had no trouble in deciding they were lunatics, so left them to their raking. Interestingly, the Lunacy Act of 1842 defined a lunatic as someone ‘afflicted with a period of fatuity in the period following a full moon’. I suppose any time falls into the category of a 'period following a full moon'.  As for fatuity, that might include all of us on certain occasions, not least since it's not stated how long 'a period' is.  Perhaps then we're all occasionally lunatic... Be all that as it may, on this occasion the lunatics (I've put inverted commas round the word and taken them out several times) outwitted the sober and sane, ...
4 comments
Read more

The Three Hares

  The Three Hares We continue on our way running, running, running around held together tip to tip so I can hear what she can hear as well as her. And the other follows me in front of her – we are joined up by our ears so we follow, lead and follow running, running, running around we continue on our way. Running, running, running around – no cause for worry – what's to come has already been. The future's past – watch us here – we're going nowhere – the last is first and first is last. Our present moment sees us still although we seem to race – running, running, running around we continue. On our way running, running, running around hearing your persistent questions – why do you keep on asking? We cannot tell you any more. May you share your senses and find soft silence at your centre which is so close, while you go on running, running, running around. The turning of the year, with the various thoughts about the past and the future that c...
2 comments
Read more

Bear Necessities

  Coming back to an old work place can be startling, especially if it's been abandoned. Abandoned not just by you, but by those who might have followed. Forsaken for good, even if circumstances had made it impossible to continue. It might not help much to remind oneself that part of the reason for all this was that the work was inefficient, clumsy and had become outmoded. Maybe worst of all would be to find amongst the ruins and abandonment an entirely inappropriate new clueless set of incumbents who could never have understood how hard we'd tried? But perhaps after all, that might be consoling. A comforting realisation that all has not been wasted, that new uses have been found for what we've left behind – in short, that life goes on. We hope. The Forecaster   This was where we lived and worked – a weather station way up north – Wrangel Island, to be precise Kolyuchin – north of Chukotka.   We made observations, carefully measured the various meteorolo...
3 comments
Read more