Psychoanalyzing Narcissus

Narcissus staring at his own reflection

Narcissus was a young man of inexplicable beauty. Born from a god and a nymph, Narcissus came into the world with looks so divine and otherworldly that they could kill. Worried about him, his mother takes him to the seer Tiresias. The seer tells her that her son would live a long life, as long as he does not look at himself.

The young Narcissus goes about his life, not knowing what he looked at. Everywhere he goes, men, women, satyrs, and nymphs indiscriminately throw themselves at him, but he ignores their declarations of love. Like this, Echo, a mountain nymph cursed with only being able to say the last few words that were spoken to her, falls in love with Narcissus. So, she could only talk to Narcissus when he spoke to her. Eventually, Narcissus sees Echo. Who’s there? he calls out. Who’s there? Echo replied. They go back and forth with each other until Echo tries to kiss Narcissus, yet he shoves her away. Echo, heartbroken, lived out the rest of her life in misery.

Narcissus goes on to break the hearts of many more of his suitors, until eventually, one of his suitors, Ameinias, kills himself as a result of Narcissus’s rejection. Before he dies, Ameinias prays to the goddess of revenge, Nemesis, who decides to deal with him. One day, she leads him to a pool. Thirsty, Narcissus bends down to drink, but then he gets a glimpse of the most perfect man staring back at him. 

The man is so handsome that he could be mistaken for a god. His hair flows like golden wheat, his eyes shine like jewels, and his lips look so plump and kissable. Narcissus immediately falls in love and tries to embrace the man in the water, but the moment he touches him, he ripples and disappears. Without realizing that he has fallen in love with his own reflection, Narcissus could not understand why something so beautiful and so lovable was just barely out of his reach. His burning but futile passion overtakes him, and Narcissus burns away. By the time that Echo finds his body, only a yellow flower remains. That concludes his story in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

The 'narcissus' flower, also known as a daffodil

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We always think of Narcissus’s story as a warning against excessive self-absorption, but is that truly the moral which Ovid wanted to share? How do we know that Narcissus simply wasn’t just naïve because his mother chose to shelter him from his own appearance? How do we know that his vainness wasn’t a result of being the object of others’ vainness his entire life? Does Narcissus deserve the blame? And that fascination, in part, is what got me into psychoanalysis.

A brief explanation of psychoanalysis: It’s a method coined by Sigmund Freud to explain the human unconscious. Psychoanalysis has always been drawn to explaining classical texts as examples of human psychic behavior. The Oedipus complex, for example, was created using the psychological frameworks indicated in Sophocles’s Oedipus. Narcissus’s story has also sparked the interests of many psychological theorists, including Freud’s daughters, Lou Andreas-Salomé and Julia Kristeva.

Freud believed that Narcissus’s ultimate fate was merely logical. He saw narcissism as a stage of self-love that must be quickly abandoned before achieving a fully functional society. Salomé, on the other hand, saw it as a fundamental condition of humanity and potential passageway to unlocking creativity. In achieving an overflow of one’s unconscious desires onto a desires, artists are able to take and symbolize the plenitude and fullness of their “selves” into paintings, poems, and other creative outlets. Kristeva shared some of her sister’s opinions but argued that narcissism was a function of the void, not of fullness. Narcissus gazes at a mirage in the pool, an “empty” reflection symbolizing the absence of any flesh-and-blood person. The gap between the desirer and the object—or in this case, concept—of desire is impassable, and that is a consequence of narcissism.

Salomé and Kristeva’s differing perspectives are conjoined by the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lagan. Lagan believes that Ovid depicts two Narcissuses: one Narcissus who believes he loves a different person, and a Narcissus who knows better. Ovid sets the stage for an ethical choice where, if Narcissus were to realize that the person he loves isn’t real, his futile attempts of love would cease. Yet, he refuses to acknowledge the fact, and throughout the poem speaks as though he knew his early death was inevitable (Ov. Met. 3.469-473): 

iamque dolor vires adimit, nee tempora vitae 

tonga meae superant, primoque exstinguor in aevo. 

nec mihi mors gravis estposituro morte dolores, 

hic, qui diligitur, vellem diuturnior esset; 

nunc duo concordes anima moriemur in una.

Transl: "Even now my sorrow saps my strength, nor does a lengthy span remain for my life; I am dying in my early years. Nor is death burdensome, since I shall put aside my sorrows in death. I do wish that my beloved could live longer. Now, two hearts in harmony are dying with one breath.”

Narcissus looking at his own image

From an ethical standpoint, Narcissus’s unwavering devotion to his love is, well, quintessentially ethical. Rather than accept oblivion in death, he refuses to leave behind his faith in his beloved. As Lacan says, he is “suspended between two deaths,” one which is of his physical body and one which of the metaphorical existence of his desire. During his monologue with his own reflection in the water, Narcissus keeps oscillating between seeing the image as “self” and as “other.”

The image transforms Narcissus’s coldness and aloofness into passion and self-sacrifice. Now, the reflection takes on the personality of the old Narcissus, bearing that same coldness and aloofness, as if that part of Narcissus’s consciousness has seeped into it. This begs the question: which of them is the real Narcissus? When Echo finds the flower, Narcissus’s body is already gone.

Narcissus’s story is so fascinating because it challenges us readers to rethink the fundamental role that we are taught self-interest plays in ethics. The more you dig into Metamorphoses, you begin to realize that both your authority as a reader and Ovid’s poetic authority are beginning to destabilize. Narcissus’s story shifts the very lines between reality and illusion. Not everything is as one-dimensional as it seems.

References: Janan, Micaela. “Narcissus on the Text: Psychoanalysis, Exegesis, Ethics.” Phoenix 61, no. 3/4 (2007): 286–95. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20304660.