Lost to Himself: Narcissus and Freud's Theory of Narcissism Reinterpreted

We tend to think of Narcissus as foolishly enamored with his own image, morbidly preoccupied with self-love. Yet when we study him closely in Ovid's Metamorphoses, he does not seem to recognize himself in the water but believes to be encountering another person; he appears lost to himself. Freud's theories of ego formation, narcissism, and melancholia are examined for explanations of this loss. In contrast to Freud, who believed that identification with the lost object facilitates the subject's separation from it, identification is redescribed as a mechanism preserving the (imaginary) union with the object. Identification with the negative object is viewed as an inevitable aspect of ego formation rather than only as indicative of depressive pathology. Finally, narcissism, initially defined as a state of diminished object cathexis, is understood as a defense structure disavowing separation and leading to the conflation of self and other.