The narcissist’s self-relation is doomed because no double exists

Evidence

There cannot be a real relationship between an individual and his double, because this double does not exist. The woman narcissist suffers a radical failure. She cannot grasp herself as a totality, as plenitude; she cannot maintain the illusion of being in itself—for itself. Her solitude, like that of every human being, is felt as contingence and abandonment. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1834

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains why narcissistic self-love structurally fails: the idealized double has no existence to relate to.
• XREF: connects to: The Other is constituted by negation as the self which is not myself — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 675; Narcissism’s demand for repeated recognition flattens the other into sameness. — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 90; The Other exists for consciousness as a prenumerical refused self (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Narcissism, romantic love, and mysticism are doomed attempts to transcend through immanence #corroborates (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1770
• The Other is constituted by negation as the self which is not myself #expands (0.82) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 675
• The doppelganger literary tradition treats the double as internal projection requiring self-destruction #exemplifies (0.82) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 82
• The diseased soul fails either to self-differentiate or to persist as identity #corroborates (0.80) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 365
• The for-itself is defined by self-withdrawal rather than self-identity #corroborates (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1145
• Narcissism’s demand for repeated recognition flattens the other into sameness. #qualifies (0.78) — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 90
• The For-itself’s being consists in internal negation rather than self-coincidence #corroborates (0.78) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 445
• The Other exists for consciousness as a prenumerical refused self #expands (0.75)
• Human reality arises as a lack of an impossible self-totality #expands (0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 362
• Selfness arises when the possible I am is reflected as absent-presence #expands (0.72)
• The for-others requires a totality in which selfness and the Other are reciprocal structures #complicates (0.72)