Narcissism, romantic love, and mysticism are doomed attempts to transcend through immanence

Evidence

There have been and there still are many women who do seek to attain individual salvation on their own. They try to justify their existence within their own immanence, that is, to achieve transcendence through immanence. It is this ultimate effort—sometimes ridiculous, often pathetic—of the imprisoned woman to convert her prison into a heaven of glory, her servitude into sovereign freedom, that we find in the narcissist, the woman in love, and the mystic. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1770

Categorization

• DEFINE: Beauvoir frames narcissism, love, and mysticism as the same underlying structure: an immanence-bound attempt at transcendence.
• XREF: Sets up the following chapters on the woman in love and the mystic; also resonates with the chapter’s title trajectory. — connects to: Fascination is transcendence and cannot by itself produce love; Poorly integrated girls convert the drive for the absolute into mysticism or revolutionary heroism — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 914; Narcissism makes maternal and lesbian lovers equivalent in structure. (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Mystical love is a narcissistic apotheosis where God’s gaze mirrors the woman’s self-image #exemplifies (0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1906
• Narcissism attempts the impossible in-itself for-itself synthesis that defines divinity #expands (0.88) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1793
• Authentic artistry requires self-transcendence, which narcissism precludes #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1818
• Inauthentic love lets the beloved ratify one’s infantile fantasies instead of moving beyond them #expands (0.78)
• Self-forgetfulness distinguishes love from narcissistic display #expands (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1813