In the classic verses of Ovid’s, “METAMORPHOSES,” the protagonist, (Narcissus) suffers eternal punishment meted out by the Gods for excess vanity. He is sentenced to spend the rest of his days, endlessly admiring the reflection of his beautiful face in a pool of water. It notably may be observed that many modern humans appear to suffer from a similar egoistic predilection, but rather, on a voluntary basis, without divine mandate. At the odious risk of premeditated commission of the offense of copyright infringement, we would, empirically, declare that the penal sentence divinely meted out to Narcissus has eternally and universally been served by humankind on a volitional basis. One has merely to substitute an ordinary mirror in exchange for the lengthy poem’s symbolic pool of water, to credibly, witness the charge that Ovid’s Narcissus has been intentionally and premeditatedly replicated and photo-shopped, on a constant and universal basis.
The reader may be assured that in this critique, we emphatically, do not include one’s routine act of occasionally monitoring the current state of his appearance.
Humankind’s bizarre predilection to eternally examine and re-examine his facial identity might conceivably, be attributable to various phenomena: a penchant for insecurity, a lack of confidence in a stable personal self-image, or, in an appropriate situation, the reflection of doubt, a shallow sense of temporal discomfort and/or the presence of weak resolve. An audit of Planet Earth’s developed Nations, we would imagine, would conceivably reveal only slightly fewer mirrors than the total of its human population. What might possibly be the nature and motivation underlying such frequently enacted self-voyeurism? Do we dare commit a possible act of excess by further supplementing this enigmatic observation with a subtle reference to snapshots and the modern affinity for “selfies”?
The instructional lesson portrayed by the fate of Ovid’s protagonist was, inarguably, one regarding excessive vanity, for which the offender was eternally condemned to ceaseless and uninterrupted self-admiration. It is our personal observation that, while universal vanity may be a cognizable motivation, in our view, there are several other, more cogent, profound, and metaphysically revealing possibilities.
Based upon our subjective perception, the fundamental and cogent motivations for the incessant practice of auditing one’s visage are those of insecurity, personal, and situational. The amelioration of either category of such causes has an existentially vital factor in common. It has been our observation that the fundamental ingredient is the failure to sufficiently acquire a mature confident, and referable internal self-image. It clearly demonstrates that one has failed to satisfactorily implement the classically sage admonition of Socrates, “know thyself.” The incessant desire to steal a peek at one’s face, or, identity, in times of equivocation or felt confusion are, in our view, symptoms of such failure.
The normally socialized individual, as we have often noted, in time, develops a vital sense of himself, or “self-image,” by consideration and contemplation of his responses to life’s varied stimuli. From the accrual of, and learning from, his consistent responses to singular empirical experiences, the contemplative individual, at some point in his maturing experience, derives an image of himself (i.e., “knows himself”); he is enabled to respond to stimuli, when called upon, based upon the assistance, garnered from his referential his self-image. He has no need to call upon his mirrored reflection in vain attempts to properly construe a response. His reflective capabilities are internal and referential, not external and mindlessly, reflexive. He seldom flounders, looks for group approval, or fears potential oppositional opinions. The image in the mirror, when he does consult one, is not motivated by indecisive delay, or deflection but one of assured confidence.
Two additional causes, we might choose to postulate for the constant (“narcissistic”) reference to mirrors are, the neurotic subjects of, an immature and ungrateful fear of aging (about which we have copiously written) and that of the ruminative phobia of hypochondria. The latter two additional causes, respectively, evincing, an insufficient ingratitude for the invaluable franchise of life, and the second, an independent and chronic pathology for which counseling may be clinically useful.
As a matter of appropriate social interaction, the next time you do glance at a mirror, you might properly choose to say, “Hello,”
-p.
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