The story of Echo and Narcissus is used as a warning to those who love someone that can not love them back and is often used as a basis for understanding the implications of a condition known as Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). It is also used in reference to Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
http://www.echo.me.uk/legend.htmExtracts taken from the "The Age of Fable" written by THOMAS BULFINCH were used . . . .
In this day and age of ill-conceived wars that impose needless suffering and death, I decided to seek an appealing distraction and welcome respite. I thought of the beautifully fragile narcissus blooms I'd once so loved. I hadn't stopped to consider the legend of Narcissus and Echo, but a beautiful graphic that was included amidst the images I discovered through a Google search led me on an additional discovery.
That, in turn, led me to wonder about the 'legend' of Narcissus and Echo. What I read, seemed somehow fitting as a basis for reflecting on human frailty and the importance of trying to understand humanity's cruelty.
As I said, the legend of Narcissus and Echo is sometimes used as a cautionary tale. I believe the legend deserves to be read, digested and understood . . . in light of the toxicity and inconceivable cruelty too often needlessly inflicted.
Knowing the genesis of an inability to love helped me to assuage the pain I felt when I personally experienced a failed relationship. What I ultimately concluded is that someone's inability to feel love toward someone is not due to any lack on the unloved person's part. Rather, the individual who suffers from an inability to feel is responsible for him/herself, completely separate and apart from another. Absolutely NOTHING the rejected, wounded individual would ever do would make the one incapable of love feel differently toward the one who has been rejected.
Perhaps, as with one-on-one relationships, we can apply the same dysfunctional toxicity to those who commit atrocities on a much grander scale. If so, trying to conceive and understand man's inhumanity to one another become reduced to something all but inconceivable in its banality. This train of illogical, thoughtless, mindlessness -- at least to me -- seems simply amazing in its simplicity.
For the moment, I have decided to refocus my attention and enjoy the elegant, delicate beauty of the narcissus blossoms.
Simply Amazing
July 21, 2014
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