What is Required to Bloom a Narcissus Flower?
Originally written in December 2022.
The Narcissus Myth Depicting the Development of Consciousness
In the myth of Narcissus and Echo we see the fulfillment of a development of consciousness that arced from Gilgamesh to Freud; and within the Narcissus flower, we can find the foreshadowing of a coming arc. From the psyche’s creation of a hero who can stand against the tides of nature, to the modern-day hero: a youth who cannot close his eyes to his own ego in the world. Narcissus epitomizes the impasse we now find ourselves in as twenty-first century individuals struggling to navigate the forests of our time; clearly a departure from the powerful hero rushing into the forest to overcome the likes of Humbaba. Gilgamesh rises up, in powerful opposition to the forces of nature, embracing the masculine companionship of Enkidu and acknowledging, albeit begrudgingly, the greater forces at play in the universe (Helle, 2022). On the other hand, Narcissus, a boy of only sixteen, is blinded to the reality of the world by his own beauty and naive arrogance. He scorns the companionship of his peers and scorns the calls of the nymph Echo. His refusal of any erotic connection prompts his peers to cry out, “may he fail to command what he loves!” (Metamorphoses (Kline) 3, the Ovid Collection, Univ. of Virginia n.d.) What a poignant curse for such a character. For us, the failure to command what we love is the loss of control of our beautiful, scientific and modern minds. We no longer hold onto control of this refined cognitive tool to conquer the outside world; it has instead conquered us.
Hero mastering a lion. Relief from the façade of the throne room, Palace of Sargon II at Khorsabad (Dur Sharrukin), 713–706 BCE.
Comparing the images at the extremes of this arc: we see Gilgamesh in a powerful stance, gaining control over nature and overcoming the great ocean to make his attempt at immortality. Whereas Narcissus has it all: youth, beauty, fame, power over his peers and a hold on immortality (long life). Even still, he throws a tantrum next to what is little more than a puddle in the forest; and cries out, in frustration, “What I want, I have!” (Metamorphoses (Kline) 3, the Ovid Collection, Univ. of Virginia n.d.) He has nowhere to enact his heroic power, “no mountains rise, nor oceans flow between” him and his goal; leaving this energy dammed up inside (Metamorphoses (Samuel Garth, John Dryden), Book the Third by Ovid. n.d.). The heroic dynamism is frustrated; the youth cares for himself and the ”enthusiasm for the chase,” but little else. From childhood, Narcissus is promised a long life given he does not come to know himself; and after thousands of years, like Narcissus, we have fallen into a trap of our own making. The all encompassing knowledge of himself ironically causes Narcissus to “fail to command” himself (Metamorphoses (Kline) 3, the Ovid Collection, Univ. of Virginia n.d.). While Gilgamesh struggles to stay awake in his quest for immortality, Narcissus is painfully awake; yet fixated on only one side of reality.
While the masculine aspects of the psyche play out in these hero-figures, the feminine aspects have their own trajectory. Echo’s disembodiment confirms the move of these feminine energies into the collective unconscious. No longer is this force present and visible in the world, but it has been infused with the earth; and has become invisible to the eyes of the ego. Echo, like Ishtar or Diana, tries to engage and interact directly with the ego; but after Narcissus “runs from her,” “her body’s strength vanishes into the air… her bones, they say, were changed to stone. She hides in the woods, no longer to be seen on the hills, but to be heard by everyone” (Metamorphoses (Kline) 3, the Ovid Collection, Univ. of Virginia n.d.). Once the dominant enforcer of human customs in Catal Hyuk, like Echo who was cursed to have “less power over the tongue,” feminine energies now speaks in echoes and riddles made out of the words our own mouths utter to ourselves (Metamorphoses (Kline) 3, the Ovid Collection, Univ. of Virginia n.d.).
However, these developments cannot escape the original tools that carved consciousness out of the wild of nature. Both Echo and Narcissus still have the instinct for erotic connection and love, an inheritance from our protohominid ancestors (Thompson, 1996). But both are thwarted in their attempt at connection, and the lack of this connection increases their respective desires. This energy is dammed up, burning within them. Narcissus “had scorned her … [as] he had scorned the companies of young men;” he is only “burning with love for [himself]” (Metamorphoses (Kline) 3, the Ovid Collection, Univ. of Virginia n.d.). Echo burns with love, but has no body or voice to manifest it, “still her love endures, increased by the sadness of rejection.” Both aspects dissociate in their intense passions, Echo’s “bones are petrify’d,” and Narcissus proclaims his fantasy, “I wish I could leave my own body!” (Metamorphoses (Kline) 3, the Ovid Collection, Univ. of Virginia n.d.) The stage is set, and the tipping point is imminent. Freud must become captivated in the reflection he sees in front of him so that Jung can begin to open the levees. Where will the psyche, energized by this dammed up energy, take us next?
Projection: The Curse of Narcissism
Freud’s perspective has stayed withtoday’s modern individual, typified by Narcissus, filled with a fire of passion for his own beauty (Freud’s view of his sexual theory), he is unable to see the other forces impacting his world. Unlike Actaeon who encounters the striking image of Diana in the cool waters, Narcissus looks into the shallow pool to see a vision of his idealized lover staring back. But it is only a reflection. We might say that Freud, like Narcissus, was only able to see the image of his own theories, and the paramount power of the modern ego-subject, staring back at him. While the image provides a true likeness and important information, what he sees on the pool’s surface is also a form of projection; which ironically is a core part of Freud’s theory of ego defense.
Narcissus Looking in the Water by Jacques Callot, c. 1628.
Jung says that projection is “subjective content [that] becomes alienated from the subject and is embodied in the object. The subject gets rid of painful, incompatible contents by projecting them … when the need to dissolve the identity with the object has arisen.” (Jung, 1974, p.457) The strength of the unconscious, albeit positive, projection leads Narcissus to question the value of the very remedy he needs, “What shall I do? Surely not court and be courted?” (Metamorphoses (Kline) 3, the Ovid Collection, Univ. of Virginia n.d.) Jung warns about the power of projection, “it does not lead to ingestion and assimilation but differentiation and separation of subject from object. Hence it plays a prominent role in paranoia, which usually ends in the total isolation of the subject” (Jung, 1974, p.458). The projection is so powerful that it creates a fear of loss. On queue, Freud reacts to this fear, saying he would “rather not understand something than make such great sacrifice for the sake of understanding” (Jung et al., 1989, p.362). Freud and the enlightened individual are so enthralled with the beauty, knowledge and power of modern science and thinking that they reject any deeper possibility. In doing so, the projection holds strong like a “bulwark” against any deeper connection (Jung et al., 1989, p.150). Because Narcissus projects externally the adoration and love for himself, he leaves the door shut to connect with anything other than himself. Unfortunately his image is not enough to fulfill the full desire for connection.
Due to this dynamic, Narcissus, and perhaps the twenty-first century individual, wishes to leave his body. He wishes to dissociate from something that is too painful or incompatible to him. The very things Narcissus flees from, Echo’s encircling arm, courtship with his peers and an indwelling in his own body, are the things he longs for through projection: resolution of the urge for connection. Because this urge is not lived out in his life or his body, it must be projected onto the image of himself on the surface of the pool. And here we see Freud looking down at his reflection, chasing the self-referential images of sexuality in the world around him; making a reductive analysis to avoid the possibility of breaking the projection. The tragedy of Narcissus is that though animating the world with only his image; he loses the ability to see the “other,” that which could unite with him in the admiration or connection that he so craves. If he could look beyond the pool’s surface, he might hear Echo, her voice ringing in the air of the forest; or see her body now in the stones of the earth. This is the core schism between Freud and Jung; where Freud refuses to break this projection of the modern ego, Jung allows the projection to be broken.
Twenty-First Century Individual and Narcissism
The DSM-5 says that narcissism is a “pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy” (Narcissistic Personality Disorder, 2021). What is the grandiose behavior we find ourselves living in today? Computer screens, iPhones and digital billboards reflect videos and images from brands, celebrities and influencers who we live alongside in the world of Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. We gaze at these images in front of us for up to 10 hours per day (Moody, 2022), staring at these reflections on silvery-screens, like the pool in front of Narcissus. These reflective surfaces are ripe for projection; and keep us out of our bodies. Despite our advances in technology, medicine, and quality of life (all outcomes of our refined modern scientific consciousness); the twenty-first century individual is plagued by psychological distress: 40 million suffer from anxiety in America and 264 million from depression around the world (Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 2022). We are distressed because we have lost the erotic connection developed among our earliest days in the wilderness. With one step of biological evolution, everything around us sprung to life: animating the skies, the oceans and the figures of the forest (Thompson, 1996).
Today the “truth of science,” like a fluorescent spotlight, pales our world, robbing it of this animism. Freud takes the words out of our mouths, “the furniture stands before me spiritless and dead, like nature silent and godless.”
(Jung et al., 1989, p.362)
Instead of an animated universe, wherever we look, we see projections of ourselves reflected back to us; indeed, the data we feed the algorithms reinforce what we will see in the future. Maybe we are in a state of depression and anxiety because our modern consciousness has robbed us of the ability to connect. The pain of disconnection or disembodiment drives us to seek a “reason” or a definitive moment that explains this horror. We obsess over our individual lives, thinking that if we could only trace the roots of our symptoms back to the “original trauma,” we might alleviate the pain. Yet knowledge or understanding fails to illuminate our distress, and we cry to ourselves with Narcissus, “Where do you vanish when I reach for you?” (Metamorphoses (Kline) 3, the Ovid Collection, Univ. of Virginia n.d.). Without anyone else in the universe, who else is there to blame but us? Our modern mind leaves us no way out but to punish ourselves, like Narcissus who “rends his garment off, and beats his breast: his naked bosom redden’d with the blow.” The masochistic wish provides but momentary relief; as our consciousness remains alert, we see “all this reflected in the dissolving waves.” (Metamorphoses (Kline) 3, the Ovid Collection, Univ. of Virginia n.d.)
This leads us to collective fantasies of utopias and apocalypses that will allow us to finally resolve the pain of the internal discord, if only we could tear down the real world around us. The apocalypse fantasy is linked to the despair of Narcissus, “he can bear it no longer.” We think that if the world (or even just our world) ends, at least “we shall die united, two in one spirit.” But the modern mind robs even this perverse pleasure, parts of us know that even in death there is no hope. This hopeless moment “so melts the youth, and languishes [him] away,” There is a part of us that knows, like Narcissus, even “when he had been received into the house of shadows, he [still] gazed into the Stygian waters;” that all of this is “in vain” (Metamorphoses (Kline) 3, the Ovid Collection, Univ. of Virginia n.d.).
Three daffodils, including the wild daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus): flowering stems with a butterfly. Etching by N. Robert, c. 1660.
We have fallen in love with the images of ourselves projected out onto the world. This projection we love to adore, and we love even more to hate. These projections enforce dissociations that keep us one sided, and blinded to deeper Echoes. It would be too painful to admit to ourselves that we are missing something; and too scary to admit that maybe there is something outside (or even within) ourselves that is out of our control. So with this tight grip, we trap ourselves like Narcissus “by his own flames consum’d… and gives himself the wound by which he dies” (Metamorphoses (Samuel Garth, John Dryden), Book the Third by Ovid. n.d.). Thankfully, Jung found in this wound the path out of the impasse. In Jung, Narcissus was no more, but “when looking for his corps, they only found a rising stalk, with yellow blossoms crown’d” (Metamorphoses (Samuel Garth, John Dryden), Book the Third by Ovid. n.d.).
The Break: Jung’s Discovery
There is something in Jung that allows him to see beyond the surface reflection of his image. Jung can no longer accept the purely reductive view of Freud’s theories. The world of the psyche must be animated by more than the individual’s dynamic of sexuality. There must be something underneath the waterline, which is interacting with the individual. What the individual sees on the surface is an illusion, and what is really there laying in the riverbed, are Echo’s bones in the form of river stones. Jung, like Narcissus, cries out, “Come from thy well, thou fair inhabitant,” (Metamorphoses (Samuel Garth, John Dryden), Book the Third by Ovid. n.d.) calling out to the image of himself; not knowing he calls to a deeper figure: Echo. Jung’s “whole being was seeking for something still unknown which might confer meaning upon the banality of life” (Jung et al., 1989, p.165).
Affect begins to disrupt the projected image and shows reality.
Narcissus’ “tears defac’d the surface of the well, with circle after circle as they fell: and now the lovely face but half appears, O’er run with wrinkles, and deform’d with tears” (Metamorphoses (Samuel Garth, John Dryden), Book the Third by Ovid. n.d.). If only Narcissus could have stayed with his tears a little longer, the disruption of the calm surface might have allowed him to break out of the projection. Unfortunately, Freud was not willing to “make such great sacrifices” (Jung et al., 1989, p.362). But Jung was. The clearly emotional break with Freud provided the affective-energy needed to see beyond the ego-hero position of Freud. Jung himself says that “affect [is on one hand] a psychic feeling-state and on the other [a] physiological innervation-state, each of which has a cumulative, reciprocal effect on the other” (Jung, 1974, p.412). This affect-energy allowed for an embodying of what was the projection, but is now recognized as internal to the individual; it is an increase in consciousness.
For Jung, this process was perhaps part of his discovery of the internal “soul-image.” Before this, we could hypothesize that Freud, and his ideologies stood in for this. “In all cases where there is an identity with the persona, and the soul accordingly is unconscious, the soul-image is transferred to a real person. This person is the object of intense love or equally intense hate (or fear)... a real, conscious adaptation to the person representing the soul-image is impossible” (Jung, 1974, p.471). As Jung breaks with Freud the illusion is shattered; the identification with Freud or his theories as “the object will scarcely be able to meet the demands of the soul-image indefinitely…” and with this break, “the subject is increasingly overwhelmed by unconscious contents, which his inadequate relation to the object makes him powerless to assimilate” (Jung, 1974, p.472). “Because an objective relationship is non-existent and out of the question, the libido gets dammed up and explodes in an outburst of affect” (Jung, 1974, p.471).
Unable to ignore the echoes of the psyche, Jung says, “I consciously submitted myself to the impulses of the unconscious” (Jung et al., 1989, p.173). In this act, he begins actively seeking Echo. Through his dreams, he sees that he must allow the death of Freud and by extension the death of the projection of himself in Freud. Actively killing Siegfried in his dream, in contrast to allowing the narcissistic dynamic to play out, he becomes the murdered and also the murderer. “The attitude embodied by Siegfried, the hero, no longer suited me. Therefore he had to be killed… This identity and my heroic idealism had to be abandoned, for there are higher things than the ego’s will, and to these one must bow” (Jung et al., 1989, p.180). We might say that there are not only “higher things,” but also deeper things than the ego’s will, for beneath the surface of the pool’s reflection lay the stones, infused with Echo’s spirit. There is a descent needed, as Narcissus’ body becomes one with the earth. But there is also an ascent; while Freud is stuck peering down into the river Styx, Jung rises again, in a new form. “After the deed I felt an overpowering compassion, as though I myself had been shot: a sign of my secret identity with Siegfried, as well as the grief a man feels when he is forced to sacrifice his ideal and his conscious attitude” (Jung et al., 1989, p.180).
Narcissus en Echo by Jan van Orley, c.1685.
Rather than reducing the voice of Echo to mere whispers of the wind, or her embrace as a repressed sexual instinct, Jung listens and looks to see the meaning beyond the symptom-like presentation of the unconscious material. This allows Jung to have a direct experience with aspects of himself: the active murderer, the murdered and that which is beyond the hero. Instead of relying on the one sided nature of the rational, ordering ego alone; he goes beyond what he “sees” or what is directly observable in the world of the scientist. He accepts this information, adding it to the logical reductive perspective; looking beyond to a more synthetic view (Jung, 1974, p.442). Sexuality is one aspect of the way our errotic connection is broken, leading to neurosis; but this in itself can also become a reductive dogma which robs us of the very internal connection we need.
Jung saw beyond the direct reflection on the pool’s surface. He heard Echo, or he looked for her in the stones.
He realized that Echo speaks to the individual through the very experiences that lead us to the initial reductive analysis. She can only speak through the words and actions that we generate, she uses these to construct meaning echoed back to us in dreams, visions or symptoms. As he began this shift in view, Jung began to see this information as symbol. “Whether a thing is a symbol or not depends chiefly on the attitude of the observing consciousness; on whether it regards a given fact not merely as such but also as an expression for something unknown” (Jung, 1974, p.475).
With this new perspective, he must hold both the interpretation of Freud (seeing everything as a symptom of sexual dynamics) and the alternative view that the symptom could become a symbol of deeper meaning and transformation. “For this collaboration of opposing states to be possible at all, they must first face one another in the fullest conscious opposition. This necessarily entails a violent disunion with oneself, to the point where the thesis and antithesis negate one another, while the ego is force to acknowledge its absolute participation in both” (Jung, 1974, p.478). “From the activity of the unconscious there now emerges a new content, constellated by the thesis and antithesis in equal measure and standing in a compensatory relation to both. It thus forms the middle ground on which the opposites can be united” (Jung, 1974, p.479). “In this way it becomes a new content that governs the whole attitude, putting an end to the division and forcing the energy of the opposites into a common channel. The standstill is overcome and life can flow on with renewed power towards new goals.” Jung calls this process “the transcendent function” (Jung, 1974, p.480). In this theory of the transcendent function, we see our first steps to spirituality for the twenty-first century individual: to see both the surface reflecting our image, as well as the beyond it to hear the voice of Echo.
Spirituality: A Direct Experience
Given this, it seems that for Jung, Spirituality is holding the modern consciousness while not “disinfecting heaven” (Jung, 1966, p.71), in short: holding the opposites: the modern human ego with the possibility of connection with the universe around us(Jung, 1966, p.72). For those of us in the twenty-first century, it means that we must find symbols that reach beyond those of Christianity and the tenants of the modern scientific mindset; but also symbols that do not forsake this heritage of our western consciousness. (Jung, 1966, p.78) And as Jung speaks of a synthetic or constructive view, the learning comes not from only one side but from every aspect: reflection in the pool, the stones of Echo’s body, the death and decay into the earth and the re-emergence of something new.
We must look beyond the surface to construct or synthesize a deeper perspective, to gaze through the immediate reflection and seek the voice of Echo beyond the words we speak and the projections we make. Although Jung did not take up Freud’s call; we have a culture that upholds the bulwark of modern science. Our current collective consciousness upholds a fantasy that, if given enough time, we can know anything with the individual-centered, outward-looking “scientific process.” In the break with Freud, Jung finds a “new middle ground” of consciousness and a direct experience of two opposing views; admitting the power of symbol which is not fully or consciously known, but causes an embodied experience (Jung, 1974, p.473).
A Personal Note
Personally, spirituality may need to start with opening myself to the idea that there is something other than the ego speaking or acting in my world, even if just in a whispering echo. The seductive images reflecting back at me, projected by the painful and incompatible aspects I can not yet hold, often keep me staring at the water’s surface; thinking that this is all there is. And for good reason too, the assurance of control is what helped me to adapt to what could otherwise be a chaotic and dangerous world. But there are moments when I hear the echoes of the psyche; like one from a 2022 dream when “I emerged from a cocoon and saw a mirror held in front of me; to show me a renewed self in the reflection. I was confused at first, expecting to see myself; but instead I saw a young woman looking back. With braided hair and long locks, wearing an ornate dress, she was a wild spirit. I wanted to reach out and touch her. She didn’t speak, but reached towards me and our palms faced each other through the mirror, as if in between a thin pane of glass. Looking into her eyes, I broke the glass barrier and our fingers intertwined.” How would my individual consciousness grow, how would my life change and how would the collective evolve if, like Jung, I was able to take seriously this material that is being echoed to me from the psyche?
My hope is that in being able to hold both parts in myself, I can a new source of information that will be able to transcend the polarities of narcissism and disembodiment. My hope is that this will lead to an internal embrace, a knowing that I do not need to control everything; that I am a participant in the movement of the psyche. My hope is that this transformation will be like the narcissus flower; which after the descent of Narcissus, rises like “the lilies of the field… [to] neither toil nor spin,” in the ego’s usual way. My hope is that I can gain the lived experience of this knowledge, that it is in this process of holding that “God so clothes the grass of the field” (English Standard Version (ESV), 2021, Matthew 6:28-33).
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