Individuation and Narcissism Summary (7/10)

In Individuation and Narcissism, Mario Jacoby starts by recalling Ovid’s tale of Narcissus, he then explains the differences between the great psychoanalytic thinkers of our time, including Freud, Jung, Neumann, Kohut – particularly their thoughts on narcissism, why it develops, and the signs that it manifests. In addition, there is a thorough discussion of the process of individuation, how it was arrived at through multiple, independent paths as a solution to many modern psychological problems, and which problems occur as a result of the failure to individuate.

Narcissus

Jung often said that people unconsciously ‘live a myth (see Jung and Jaffc, 1963). It might equally be said that a myth lives within the people themselves, in their unconscious, motivating them to certain forms of experience and behavior.

Ovid wrote the story of Narcissus. He first introduces the seer Tiresias and then the nymph Liriope who gives birth to an exceptionally beautiful son who she named Narcissus. His father was the river god Cephisus, who forced the nymph into his stream and made her pregnant. When Tiresias was asked if Narcissus would have a long life he replied ‘Yes, if he does not come to know himself.’

Read The Dichotomy of the Self

YARPP List

Related posts:

1. Modern Man in Search of a Soul Summary (8/10)
2. Part 2: Stir Up The Transgressive and Taboo (The Art of Seduction)
3. Myth 10: When Dying, People Pass through a Universal Series of Psychological Stages (50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology)
4. Thoughts Without a Thinker Summary (7/10)