The Boy Who Never Grew Up To many, the myth of Narcissus is a ridiculous story about a boy who falls in love with himself, however, there are more layers than meet the eye. In truth, Narcissus’s fate of loneliness after pushing everyone around him away is one that we could all suffer from. This is a story of a boy who got stuck on his path to manhood, and because he was unable to successfully separated from his parents and integrate himself, sacrificed a healthy form of object-love. Ovid is depicting the transitional period to adulthood we all must face, and where we can go astray. Looking at the myth through a psychoanalytic lens can help us dissect how a handsome young boy came to suffer a premature death full of such longing and despair. A glimpse into what caused his Narcissism can be seen by …show more content…
He believed that homosexuals could not move past the auto-erotic phase he believed all children went through. As a result, they developed the sexual pathology of loving people of the same gender. I think this interpretation of the myth is flawed because Ovid makes it a point to say that Narcissus received advances from both males and females, “As Narcissus had scorned her, so he had scorned the other nymphs of the rivers and mountains, so he had scorned the companies of young men.” By reiterating this, Ovid wants us to see that Narcissus had plenty of opportunities to be with others, but he could not get over his fixation with himself to be with anyone. He was stuck to the point where he could not properly develop love for anyone, male or female. I believe the myth goes much deeper than a justification of sexual pathologies. It is a warning that applies to everyone, of the dangers of getting stuck in the phase where we learn to properly love things other than ourselves. We must not just mature psychically, which Narcissus had been very successful at, but also mentally and