The Causes of Narcissus’ Death
Narcissus, whose mother was told byblind seer Tiresias that he would have a long life, provided he never recognized himself.In order to escape the oracle, Narcissus’ mother deliberately arranged for his son to grow up in the mountains, away from streams, lakes, the sea, so that Narcissuswill never see his face.Narcissus grew up safe and sound in the mountains and woods, as his mother had hoped, and as the oracle had predicted, he became the most beautiful man in the world.All the girls who met him fell deeply in love with him.Echo was one of those girls, unfortunately,Narcissus rejected her advances. His rejection drew upon him the vengeance of the gods. They wanted him to know what it felt like to love and never be loved. They made it so there was only one whom he would love, someone who was not real and could never love him back.They wanted him to experience the torture which Echo had been experienced before.
He fell in love with his own reflection in the waters of a spring He looked at his beautiful reflection in the lake, refused to leave, finally,he died, into a daffodil, still stayed in the lake to be with his reflection.
Narcissus （a kind of flower）which takes its name from Narcissus （the cursed man）, is also a pronoun for narcissists and a derivation of English words such as narcissism, which in psychology is referred to as a narcissist.
Psychologist Floyd incorporated the term “Narcissism” into his theory of psychosexual development, and defined it as a normal development following the masturbation stage, which ultimately leads to objectionable behavior. He argues that the major conflicts of the fetish phase are fixed in the narcissistic phase. Floyd likens narcissism to sleeping or sick people, when all emotional investment is withdrawn from the outside world and invested in oneself. Adler’s individual psychology proposed the inferiority complex and the compensation function, belongs to the narcissistic personality pattern. After being compared with others, it is found that they are inferior to others, thus resulting in compensatory behavior. Some theorists suggest that narcissists are the result of early parental inattention, or inherited narcissism from parents who overcompensate for their patients’feelings of inferiority or insignificance.
What causes Narcissus’ death? Was is because of parental inattention? Probably not, Narcissus died while admiring his own beauty. In Greek myth, he is superficially appreciating his own beauty, but in fact, he is “Looking at himself”. Look, it is an inquiry. He is exploring himself, the nature of who he is. Those who are familiar with oriental idealism know the theory of “Three-circle idealism”. Narcissus, in gazing at his beauty, saw his own mind, as the mind of his own nature.
