Narcissism

In our discussion this evening we danced around the subject of alcohol and drug consumption. We also discussed schizophrenia. The gist of the discussion revolved around the thought that alcohol consumption decreases guilt caused by unattended obligations while attention is paid to narcissistic pleasure without guilt. Schizophrenia is withdrawal from narcissism as one flounders in a sea of contradictory obligations and loyalties. It's a middle space between narcissism and obligation with no venturing into either of them for any length of time. A schizophrenic is lost between narcissistic impossibility and the tyranny of obligation.

This blog is dedicated to exploring and debating the ideas of Ernest Becker and Otto Rank. If you are not familiar with these scholars and others interested in the same kinds of ideas, you can check out a couple of websites to which you will find links in the sidebar below.

As a brief sampler of what you can expect: Becker (who died in 1974), following Rank and others, notes the role of what he calls immortality-ideologies in history as they trigger violence and barbarism in their efforts to purge the world of the 'evil' of rival immortality-ideologies. He writes that societies are "hero systems for the denial of death" by which we are promised eternal life in exchange for 'giving' ourselves fully and heroically to the immortality project. Just as radical Muslim suicide bombers give up their lives to help rid the world of the evil that George Bush and America represent to them, Bush and his cohorts are bent on securing Middle East oil, the necessary lubricant to ensure the continuation of the 'good life' in the West.