Book Summaries
Individuation and Narcissism Summary (7/10)
In[ Individuation and Narcissism](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1138185671/unearnedwis05-20), 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 th
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:
- Modern Man in Search of a Soul Summary (8/10)
- Part 2: Stir Up The Transgressive and Taboo (The Art of Seduction)
- Myth 10: When Dying, People Pass through a Universal Series of Psychological Stages (50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology)
- Thoughts Without a Thinker Summary (7/10)
Keep Reading
Related Articles
Book Summaries
The Hero with a Thousand Faces Summary (8/10)
## The Role of Myths Myths are a mechanism we can use to find out who we are, and what we value implicitly. It teaches us about the stages of life, and how to pass through them successfully – while avoiding the psychological dangers along the way.
Book Summaries
Of Mice and Men Summary (8/10)
> Slim looked through George and beyond him. “Ain’t many guys travel around together,” he mused. “I don’t know why. Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.
Book Summaries
The Problem of Evil (Dominion)
For the Jews, who were humiliated by conquerors, a problem was raised. If God was good, why would he allow such things to happen? Jewish scholars arrived at a somber explanation: the entire history of humanity was one of disobedience to God.
Book Summaries
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit – Meaning
The widely attributed quote “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit” represents philosopher Will Durant’s masterful distillation of Aristotelian virtue ethics from the Nicomachean Ethics.