Zman Cheiruteinu
Wishing all a Chag Kosher VeSameach. May this Passover bring hope and redemption for us all. (Check out my little hagadah here, and Pesach thoughts from this year here and here.)
Here's a thought; Pesach is a communal holiday and sometimes the individual can get lost. Maybe that's why the rabbis stress that every individual must see himself as if he went out from Egypt. During national gatherings it's important to remember the significance of individuals. G-d didn't only take the Jewish people out of Egypt. He took out you and me out of bondage. And He continues to free each one of us.
Sometimes a word is used only with certain connotations. Narcissistic is one of those words. So I thought I'd share this, which I got from Wikipedia: Sigmund Freud believed that some narcissism is an essential part of all of us from birth and was the first to use the term in the reference to psychology (Freud, Sigmund, On Narcissism: An Introduction, 1914). Andrew Morrison claims that, in adults, a reasonable amount of healthy narcissism allows the individual's perception of his needs to be balanced in relation to others (Morrison, Andrew. Shame: The Underside of Narcissism, The Analytic Press, 1997.)
CKVAGB
posted by rabbi neil fleischmann @ 3:25 PM
2 Comments:
I agree that narcissism has been overly pejoratized. (Ha -- way to make up a word!) Extreme narcissim is counterproductive, but as Freud pointed out, some of it is probably necessary for survival and even dominance.
Most of our behaviors and traits, IMO, are biologically based, strengthened through natural selection and evolution. Call it ego, id, and superego, or simply tools for survival -- it all starts with the reptilian part of our brains and branches out from there.
People who are narcissism-deficient can be susceptible to underachievement, low self-esteem, and isolation. Overly narcissistic people can be charismatic but difficult to live with on a daily basis. Most of us all in the middle somewhere.
I am quite narcissistic myself (writing in public is just one manifestation), but I hope not so much that I turn off the people I care about most. Time for Narcissists Anonymous? :-)
Thanks. I had posted the quote about narcisism years ago. Thanks for the thoughtfulness you gave it - inteligent and articulate as usual.
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