of the offending organ, sense, or function. Thus, the stimulus 
to new invention is the stress of acceleration of pace and 
increase of load. For example, in the case of the wheel as an 
extension of the foot, the pressure of new burdens resulting 
from the acceleration of exchange by written and monetary 
media was the immediate occasion of the extension or 
“amputation” of this function from our bodies. The wheel as a 
counter-irritant to increased burdens, in turn, brings about a 
new intensity of action by its amplification of a separate or 
isolated function (the feet in rotation). Such amplification is 
bearable by the nervous system only through numbness or 
blocking of perception. This is the sense of the Narcissus myth. 
The young man’s image is a self-amputation or extension 
induced by irritating pressures. As counter-irritant, the image 
produces a generalized numbness or shock that declines 
recognition. Self-amputation forbids self-recognition.