Chapter 1
Presentation: The Mirror Image
Our self image, strongly held, essentially determines what we become.
—Dr. Maxwell Maltz, author of Psycho-Cybernetics: A New Way to Get More Living out of Life
The myth of Narcissus, the story of the youth who fell in love with his own image and, unable to stop gazing at it, died as a result, has endured through the ages. Although the story varies slightly—with at least one version telling of a man who physically wasted away because of his mesmerization with his own reflection and others speaking of an equally macabre tale of suicide—the outcome remains the same: Narcissus’s self-adulation led to his gruesome and untimely death. Is his story simply a masterpiece of Greek fiction? Possibly. But, you most likely have invoked his name pejoratively when describing someone you know (not yourself, of course) whose blinding conceit is simply intolerable.
Likely very few possess the maturity or self-awareness to identify with Narcissus’s story directly, let alone see the perils of his unfortunate tale as red flags in their own lives. If you believe that his legend is relegated to the halls of fiction or merely serves as a colorful moniker for “other” self-obsessed human beings, this ominous narrative hits closer to home than you may think. Turn your attention from Greek mythology to human psychology and to the name Jacques Marie Émile Lacan. True, his name is not embedded in the fabric of our cultural vocabulary like that of Narcissus, nor does ...
