Sartorius, B. (Geneva). ‘Der Mythos von Narziss: Notwendigkeit und Grenzen der Reflexion’ (The myth of Narcissus: necessity and limits of reflection).  Analytische Psychologic,  12 (1981).

There has always been a high degree of ambivalence, if not of negativity, surrounding the term ‘narcissism’. This, as Sartorius demonstrates in this paper, reflects the many-sided richness of a myth which abounds in tantalising hints and allusions. Here he emphasises the positive aspects of narcissism, showing how it is a normal dimension of human experience, inevitable but also self-limiting.

The major portion of the paper consists of a detailed amplification of Ovid's version of the myth. The attractive youth, Narcissus, represents the person who functions in a way suggestive of vitality and ego-strength but who has no relation to the unconscious, or, rather, whose relation to the unconscious is itself unconscious. He cannot respond to Echo's love since in his self-sufficiency he is aware neither of himself nor of others. Echo, at the opposite pole to Narcissus, is unable to express anything of herself, only reacting to others by repeating what they say. Just as Narcissus is self-complacent (selbstgefallig), or, perhaps more accurately, ego-complacent, so Echo is in a state of self-lessness (Selbst-losigkeit), or, we could say, of ego-lessness, of non-differentiation. Together they play out the intrapsychic drama of the relationship between the ego and the unconscious.

Narcissus's perception of himself in the pool marks the beginning of ego-self differentiation and hence of the possibility of relatedness both within himself and with others. His physical need to drink reflects his even greater psychic need: he dies in the life-giving water of the unconscious, but the flowers that spring up and are named after him are associated with death and resurrection, with the mystical wedding, with coniunctio.

Sartorius sees the Narcissus myth as central to analysis since analysis represents