Oldal 71 [71]
“The decision is made at the moment, not in time or space. Narcissus
must decide. The image does not mean knowledge, much less un¬
derstanding, it only enhances desire. The choice separates.” (Pseudo
Kierkegaard 2012)
Pseudo Kierkegaard is a bit pathetic here, but this is indeed the
meaning of the story of Narcissus. Narcissus, searching for the
same, finds the other that stands opposite him, and then, when he
recognizes himself in the other, in his anger and despair he wants
to destroy that stranger, who is inside him. By doing so, by the way,
he is destroying himself. But that is what interests me the least.
He could do something else, for example reconcile with himself,
but he did not read Hegel (even though everyone reads Hegel.) Or
he could simply go step over that border, accepting the indifferent
horrors of presence, reconciling with the other. He could marry
Echo,” he could have children, he could become a good military
leader and slaughter neighboring populations in order to possess
the pleasure that comes from otherness and to win glory for the
same: the more foreign blood, the greater the glory. He could start
a large family whose members would also feel and act that way, and
so on and so forth, perhaps until the end of time. Then, at the end
32 Howinteresting that almost from its inception psychology has used the term
narcissistic. In contrast, it only started using the term egoistical much later.
This term refers to someone who subsumes their self entirely to another,
who only repeats the other's words, in a manner of speaking.