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06528_Field_TCUM T93.txt
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1996-04-10
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930b
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16 lines
the Narcissus myth does not convey any idea that Narcissus
fell in love with anything he regarded as himself. Obviously he
would have had very different feelings about the image had he
known it was an extension or repetition of himself. It is,
perhaps, indicative of the bias of our intensely technological
and, therefore, narcotic culture that we have long interpreted
the Narcissus story to mean that he fell in love with himself,
that he imagined the reflection to be Narcissus!
Physiologically there are abundant reasons for an
extension of ourselves involving us in a state of numbness.
Medical researchers like Hans Selye and Adolphe Jonas hold
that all extensions of ourselves, in sickness or in health, are
attempts to maintain equilibrium. Any extension of ourselves
they regard as “autoamputation,” and they find that the
autoamputative power or strategy is resorted to by the body