Show why we do aliat we do by M K THOMSON ph D WHY WE LOVE OURSELVES ISSUS according to the greek myth was the son of a river god and a nymph echo a nymph fell in love with him and pined away because of his nee lect elect only her voice remained in pun ashment made narcissus fall in love with his own reflection in n lake in turn pined away and wis changed into the flower tint bears his I 1 lans make use of this myth as an illustration ft a certain type of nervous disorder in which the pa fixes his love on himself even as narcissus fell in love with his re in the water the malndy goes by the name of in modified form Is ap to normal people as well I 1 ile all other pathologic it cases it represents a distorted picture of the il we are all born egoistic and self centered unless the tendency Is ef checked by social contacts self importance may lead to self love there are various shades and degrees of self love from plain unadulterated conceit and egotism to megalomania the megalomaniac Is insane on the subject of his own greatness it Is an obsession in every insane asylum there are a number of such who regard themselves as superior mortals they attribute their confinement to the lack of appreciation on the part of the public and find consolation in the idea tint as soon as they dip the world will realize the great error and make up for it by erecting bonu ments to their memory e are all in love with ourselves at the outset as infants and young children but manage to get over it after a while after we have rubbed elbows etli others and have ats covered our fallings there are those however who remain children in this and perhaps in other respects they never get over their delusion of great ness others come back to it with a vengeance as the result of some real or fancied bit of success that quite sets them up fundamentally the drive of self love Is the self impulse of self assertion and the desire to show off to do something big and impressive 0 by mcclure syndicate |