Under Construction @ Keele 2018 Vol. IV (II) | Page 47

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Part Two 5 .
The image above, ‘Electrocardiography’, signifies the rhythm and electricity of the heart. The
heart is, of course, a symbol of love. This ‘ECG’ is purposefully variable and descending
indicating deviation and therefore pathology. Again, it is an example of Outsider art because
it illustrates a confused mental (emotional rather than physical) state, something which writing
the ‘confessional’, rather than admittance, can alleviate.
In the following section, I will discuss psychoanalytical ideas on narcissism which still
influence analysts and analysands today. The psychoanalytical concept of narcissism derives
from the myth of Narcissus. It first appeared in Freud’s work in 1910 and more thoroughly in
1914 in his paper ‘On Narcissism’. 6 Narcissism is self-love, the love of yourself as a subject
and object rather than directing that love towards something outside of yourself. Freud
distinguishes between primary and secondary narcissism, where primary narcissism is usually
resolved in childhood. In this paper, I will focus on narcissism which has not been resolved
and which therefore causes psychological suffering for the person.
Freud borrowed the idea of pathological narcissism from Havelock Ellis’s
Autoeroticism, a psychological study. 7 Here, Ellis described the narcissist as perverted and
Author’s own image.
Jean Laplanche and Jean-Bertrand Pontalis, The Language of Psychoanalysis (London: Hogarth
Press, 1973, see the entry on Narcissism, 255-273.
7 Laplanche, The Language of Psycho Analysis, Chapter on Narcissism, 255-273
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