Narcissism, Totality, Mimicry And Gaze

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

And Jesus said:

I came to judgment into this world, so that the blind can see

but those who see have become blind.

John 9:39

Narcissism, as a psychoanalytic concept, is closely associated with the formation of the I and an extremely important role in this process is played by the visual field of perception and the idea of space itself. In the picturesque legend of Narcissus, a beautiful young man is captured by an image, freezes in a motionless form, remaining even after his death, unable to look away, turning into an eternal image of artists and poets.

In 1914, Freud publishes the pivotal for the entire psychoanalytic theory work "An Introduction to Narcissism", which, while declared to be nothing more than an approximation to the topic, nevertheless contains a number of fundamental provisions. The concentration of ideas in this text is so high that many things seem indistinguishable and contradictory. In general, it is not possible to present the content of this text fully, simply and clearly - there is always some understatement, a stain. This feature of any psychoanalytic text manifests itself here especially clearly. You can compare such a presentation device with a node in the topological sense, it means that if the integrity of the semantic threads is not violated, not to distort or simplify them, then any manipulations can lead to a mass of new interpretations (representations), but all of them will be packed into the same structure.

This article attempts to clarify the structural model of Freud's theory of narcissism by comparing some ideas on the appearance and disappearance of subjectivity in the visual field.

Theory of Narcissism by Lou Andreas-Salomé

In the plot of the legend of Narcissus, Lou Andreas Salome draws attention to the fact that he looks “not into a mirror created by human hands, but into the mirror of Nature. Perhaps he saw not himself as such in the reflection of the mirror, but himself, as if he were Everything”[1]. This idea is expressed in the text "The Dual Orientation of Narcissism" (1921), where Lou Andreas Salome emphasizes Freud's "inherent duality of the concept of narcissism" and dwells on "the less obvious [its] aspect, the constant sense of identification with the totality." The duality is set out in the frame of the first theory of drives, Lou Andreas Salome insists that narcissism clearly marks not only the drives of self-preservation, but also sexual drives. In general, this point of view fully corresponds to the transformation of the theory of drives that Freud undertook in 1920, as a result of which the drives of self-preservation of the first theory passed into the category of drives of life, that is, they also turned out to be inscribed in the economics of libido.

It is libidinality, that is, the conjugation of narcissism with attraction, that Lou Andreas Salome emphasizes in his text, but he always considers narcissism in the key of sublimation as something that serves the love of the object, supports moral values and artistic creativity. According to her, in all these three cases the subject expands the boundaries of his own I according to the model of early infantile union with the external environment. This point of view is contrary to the generally accepted simplified judgment of narcissism at the level of descriptive representation, as a state of self-sufficiency and self-love. Lou Andreas Salome speaks of narcissism as the basis of an act of love both to oneself and to the world, since, expanding, one's own I includes external objects in its composition, totally dissolving into the “Everything”.

This seems to contradict Freud's thesis that the action of the narcissistic function is aimed at closing in and withdrawing the libido of objects in favor of the Self, however, from the very first application of the concept of narcissism in psychoanalysis, it is designated as a transitional phase from auto- to alloeroticism,in this phase, the shell of completeness and self-sufficiency is broken, along with the transition to a relationship with the object, which will always be marked by lack. In 1929, reflecting on the nature of the “oceanic feeling”, Freud describes this state as follows: “initially the I includes everything, and then the external world emerges from it” [2], Lou Andreas Salomé also believes, she connects this state with the complete dissolution of the I figure against the background of the external world. Freud continues his thought: "Our present sense of I is just a shriveled remnant of some wide, even all-embracing feeling, which corresponded to the inseparability of the I from the external world." The aspect of the narcissistic expansion of the self, whose work is emphasized by Lou Andreas Salomé, corresponds to a return to the primary narcissism of Freud's theory.

It is known that Lou Andreas Salome became a very close associate of the founder of psychoanalysis and fit very well into the picture of his personal and professional life. Since childhood, she was surrounded by male attention, and according to the testimony of numerous fans, she always knew how to listen and understand. It seems that in accordance with her theory, Lou Andreas Salome built relationships with others, including in their interests, expanding the boundaries of her own I [3]. That is, in the model she proposed, the features of her life story are guessed, which, apparently, are due to her own phantasm, nevertheless, her presentation clearly indicates that in Lacan's theory it will be called the register of the imaginary and the idea of narcissism as a unity is especially consonant. with the external environment with the concept of mimicry by Roger Cayyou, to which Lacan refers to designate the role of the register of the imaginary and the field of visibility in the work of attraction.

Mimicry by Roger Cayyou

In his research, Roger Cayyouis is busy comparing the behavior of insects and human mythology, and starts from the position of Bergson, according to which “a mythical representation (“almost hallucinatory image”) is called upon in the absence of instinct to cause the behavior that would be conditioned by it” [4]. In Roger Cayyou's reasoning, the instinctive behavior of animals and the work of an imaginary person are conditioned by the same structure, but expressed at different levels: the same type, set by instinct, action in the animal world corresponds to a mythological plot in human culture, and is repeated in phantasms and obsessive notions. Thus, by studying the behavior of some animals, one can better (he writes "more reliably than in psychoanalysis" [5]) to clarify the structure of the "node of psychological processes."

Moreover, relying on the research of biologists, Roger Caillois refuses to recognize that instinct only has the functions of self-preservation and procreation; he mentions cases of instinctive behavior that leads to the death of an individual and a risk to the existence of the whole species. In this reasoning, Roger Cayyua refers to Freud's "principle of nirvana" as the primordial craving of all living things to return to the state of rest of inorganic life [6], and Weismann's theory, emphasizing in sexuality "the deep factor of death and its dialectical origin" [7]. In the works of Roger Caillois, the most fruitful phenomenon for the study of mythology from the life of the animal world is mimicry, which “in a sensual-figurative form is a kind of surrender of life” [8], that is, it acts on the side of the death drive.

In addition, mimicry in the animal world, likening the living to the inanimate, appears as a prototype of the artist's creative sublimation, capturing the world around him in a frozen image. Some researchers even believe that "unnecessary and excessive insect mimicry is nothing more than pure aesthetics, art for art, sophistication, grace" [9]. In this sense, mimicry is a “dangerous luxury” [10], as a result of “temptation by space” [11], the process of “depersonalization through merging with space.” [12]

In the relationship of an individual with space, Roger Caillet distinguishes three functions of mimicry: travesty, camouflage and intimidation, and connects them with three types of mythological subjects in humans. Travesty in the animal world means an attempt to pass oneself off as a representative of another species, this is manifested in the mythology of metamorphosis, that is, in stories of transformations and transformations. Camouflage is associated with assimilation to the external environment, mythologically this is conveyed in stories about the ability to be invisible, that is, to disappear. Fear is that the animal, by changing its appearance, scares or paralyzes the aggressor or victim, while not posing a real threat, in mythology this is associated with the "evil eye", creatures like Medusa and the role of the mask in primitive communities and masquerades [13]. According to Roger Cayyoux, assimilation to another (travesty-metamorphosis-dressing up) helps to disappear (camouflage-invisibility). Namely, the sudden appearance of "nowhere" paralyzes, enchants or causes the effect of panic, that is, the third function in some way "crowns" the phenomenon of mimicry [14], the animal in the implementation of this function literally expresses the tendency to expand, increasing the visibility of its size. If for the functions of travesty and camouflage, an important factor is the assimilation of an individual of another species or environment, then in the function of intimidation the factor of assimilation does not play such a role, the sudden appearance or beating of the rhythm of appearance and disappearance is important.

Lacan's point of view

Mimicry in the animal world, and its expression in mythology, proposed by Roger Caillet, help Lacan to clarify the status of the object in the visual field. In Seminar 11, the topic of the split between eye and gaze becomes a transition point between the concepts of the unconscious and repetition on the one hand, and the concepts of transference and attraction on the other.

"In relations determined by vision, the object on which the phantasm depends, on which the flickering, fluctuating subject hangs, is the look" [15]. Lacan defines the gaze as the most illustrative example of the object a, which arises as an effect of the injury inflicted on oneself as a result of the approach to the Real [16]. The gaze is located "on the other side" of visibility and invisibility, this is something that always escapes the field of visibility, and is not localized in space in any way - the gaze looks from everywhere [17].

What determines the register of the imaginary is built according to the law of the direct perspective of three-dimensional space, which is created by the vision of the eye of the subject occupying the privileged position of the observer of the picture of the surrounding world and mastering it with the help of cognition, which, as Lacan emphasizes, is always designation. In this direct perspective, self-reflection is possible and the task of a psychologist or psychotherapist may be to make the invisible visible [18], this is the relationship of the preconscious with the conscious, one's own I with a small other.

The seamy side of the direct perspective is the reverse perspective, in which the subject himself is inscribed in the picture, as a point among other points, in this position he is faced with the question of the desire of the big Other, and in the opposite perspective he lets his eyes know about himself. It is this perspective that Freud speaks of as the third blow to human narcissism, which psychoanalysis inflicts, and thereby negates the privilege of the subject of consciousness. Thus, the reality seen in direct perspective by the subject is marked by phantasm, which is the relationship of the crossed out subject with the object a.

The mediator of the relationship between the crossed out subject and the object, and in the case of a scopic drive, is a spot that hides the gaze from the subject, and in the form of which he himself becomes an element of the picture. To explain the duality of the subject's position and the pulsation of the transition from direct perspective to reverse, Lacan tells a story from his youth when a fisherman he knows shows him a shiny jar floating on the surface of the water and asks: “Do you see this jar? Do you see her? Exactly, but she - no you!”[19]. Young Lacan tries not to lose sight of anything, he is very curious, but turns out to be an indistinguishable spot for the can, which turns into "the focus of everything that looks at him."

This situation can be viewed from the point of view of the 3 functions of mimicry. The travesty consisted in the fact that Lacan tried to pass himself off as “a different species,” namely, a fisherman, which should have contributed to camouflage, since he wanted to merge with the environment in a sense, as he says, “to plunge into the direct and active element - rural, hunting or even sea”[20]. And finally, with the third function, it actively asserts itself as a spot in stark contrast to its surroundings.

Lacan says that “to imitate is really to reproduce an image. But for the subject to imitate means, in fact, to fit into the framework of a certain function, the performance of which captures him”[21]. Thus, mimicry as a whole, and its three types can be interpreted as the disappearance of the subject in the function: 1) in the field of visibility, he takes the form of another (travesty); 2) disappears, merging with the background (camouflage); 3) again actively intrudes into the dimension of the visible, but having already changed in order to perform a certain function, that is, having finally eliminated itself, as such.

To narcissism

According to the plot of the ancient saga, Narcissus loves and dies, and, according to some researchers of Ovid's text, the cause of death is nothing more than a look [22]. In psychoanalytic terms, this is a story about the appearance and disappearance of the subject, the work of the drive and the role of the visible field.

On the general plane of the theory of narcissism that Freud proposes, the following figures can be distinguished:

- the appearance of the contour of one's own I in the picture of the surrounding world, - gaining the unity of one's own I in the image of a visible object, - establishing relations with external objects on behalf of (visibility) of one's own self.

Freud initially defines narcissism in the framework of the libidinal economy of sexual drives through the distinction between self-libido and object-libido, that is, the theoretical model of narcissism describes the cycle of libido circulation between self and object. The dual characterization of libido in the theory of narcissism corresponds to the surface of the Mobius strip, which appears to be one-sided or two-sided, depending on the chosen perspective of observation.

Thus, the notion of narcissism as a pre-libidinal process aimed only at “locking in oneself” adds another descriptive and diagnostic category, but greatly simplifies the structural essence of the model proposed by Freud.

Remaining within the framework of the first theory of drives, Lou Andreas-Salomé draws attention to the shift in meaning in the interpretation of narcissism, and emphasizes its dual orientation. Lou Andreas-Salomé defines the role of narcissism in love and sex life with the help of an original concept. It highlights the aspect of identification with the totality, which sets a vector for its own I to expand into the external world. At the level of spatial comparison of models, Lou Andreas-Salomé, as it were, reverses the perspective proposed by Freud, according to which the narcissistic process is associated with the outflow of libido from objects of the external world towards the I. The opposite direction of the two models at the level of visual representation has a common solution at the level of topological structure.

Roger Caillois's research allows us to comprehend in more detail the hypothesis of Lou Andreas-Salomé about the desire to identify with the totality in the spatial coordinates of the field of view. The phenomenon of mimicry in the representation of Roger Caillois helps Lacan to formulate the splitting between the eye and the gaze, through which the attraction in the visual field declares itself [23]. But this conversation will no longer be about the formation of the I, but about the flickering being of the subject of the unconscious.

The concept that Lacan is moving towards in Seminar 11 is the concept of attraction. And according to the final scheme, the satisfaction of attraction brings the closure of the contour around the object a. The circuit is closed if the subject manages to involve the other in a special way [24], and thus acquire the desire for the Other. Particularly for the visual drive, the result is to "make you look at yourself." The active side of the drive concerns the idea of throwing oneself into the picture for the gaze of the Other, the passive side of the drive concerns the fact that in this picture the subject freezes or dies in the performance of a function [25]. Throwing into a picture is a moment of the subject's being, which has no temporal extension. The work of the drive is reduced to the function of the signifier, which by its appearance in the Other causes the birth of the subject, and in which the subject immediately freezes tightly [26]. This is how Lacan explains the essence of attraction, which is based not on the difference between the sexes, but on the very fact of separation, as a result of which 1) something, namely the libido, becomes an organ of attraction [27], taking the form of object a; 2) sexuality becomes a guarantee of death.

Thus, the model proposed by Freud in his work "An Introduction to Narcissism" contains a complex and capacious meaning. This can be seen both at the level of the content of the ancient mythological plot, and at the level of structural correspondences between the models of the self-formation and the formation of the subject. In Lacan's theory, the study of the nodal alignment of three registers and other topological approaches can lead to the clarification of these correspondences.

Sources of

Andreas-Salome L. The Dual Orientation of Narcissism

Caillois R. "Myth and man. Man and the sacred" // Caillois R. Meduse et Cie

Kinyar P. Sex and fear

Lacan J Seminars, Book 11 The Four Basic Concepts of Psychoanalysis

Mazin V. Femme fatale Lou Andreas-Salome; report at a conference in St. Petersburg - the text is available on the network

Smuliansky A. Visibility of invisibility. Some claims to psychotherapy. Lakanalia # 6 2011

Smulyansky A. Lacan-educational program 1 season, 1 issue "The work of the imaginary in the act of sexual attraction"

Freud Z. "Attractions and their destinies"

Freud Z. "Towards an Introduction to Narcissism"

Freud Z. "The malaise of culture"

[1] Andreas-Salome L. The Dual Orientation of Narcissism

[2] Freud Z. Dissatisfaction with culture (1930) M.: OOO "Firma STD", 2006 P.200

[3] See V. Mazin. Femme fatale Lou Andreas-Salomé; report at a conference in St. Petersburg - the text is available on the network

[4] Caillois R. "Myth and man. Man and the sacred" M.: OGI 2003, p.44

[5] Ibid., P. 50

[6] Ibid, p.78

[7] Ibid, p.79

[8] Ibid, p.78

[9] Ibid., P. 101

[10] Ibid, p.95

[11] Ibid, p.96

[12] Ibid, p.98

[13] Caillois R. Meduse et C^ie, Gallimard, 1960, P.77-80

[14] Ibid., 116

[15] Lacan J. (1964). Seminars, Book 11 "Four basic concepts of psychoanalysis" M.: Gnosis, Logos. 2017, C.92

[16] the interest that the subject shows to his own splitting is due to the fact that this splitting causes - with that privileged, from some initial separation, from some inflicted on himself and the approach to the Real provoked mutilation by an arisen object, which in our algebra is called object a …

Ibid, p.92

[17] if I see from a single point, then, since I exist, the gazes are directed at me from everywhere

Ibid., P. 80

[18] See Smuliansky A. Visibility of invisibility. Some claims to psychotherapy. Lakanalia # 6 2011

[19] Ibid., P.106

[20] Ibid, p.106

[21] Ibid., P. 111

[22] Kinyar P. Sex and fear: Essays, M.: Text, 2000

[23] The eye and the gaze - it is between them that the crack lies for us, through which the attraction manifests itself in the visual field.

Lacan J. (1964). Seminars, Book 11 "Four basic concepts of psychoanalysis" M.: Gnosis, Logos. 2017, C.81

[24] Ibid., 196-197

[25] Ibid., 212-213 con 15

[26] The subject is born only when the signifier appears in the Other's field. But it is precisely for this reason that what is born - and what was, before that, nothing - a subject that is just about to become, freezes in the signifier tightly

Ibid., P. 211

[27] Ibid., P. 208

the article was published on the website znakperemen.ru in June 2019