In “On Narcissism: An Introduction,” Freud indicates, “The ego ideal opens up an
important avenue for the understanding of group psychology. In addition to its individual side, this ideal has a social side; it is also the common ideal of a family, a class or a nation” (101).
Via studying the content of an individual’s ego ideal, it helps to understand the structure of the ego ideal in one group to which this individual belongs. In other words, the ideal of an individual reflects the ideal of the family, the class, the society, and even the nation which the individual is part of. According to Freud, the ego ideal is the revival of one’s primary
narcissism. Although the ego ideal may undergo modification, the remnants of one’s primary narcissism always remain in the ego ideal. That is to say, the basis or the root of the ego ideal at bottom is one’s narcissism. Analogously, the ego ideal of one group is the revival of the group’s primary narcissism. The content of one group’s ego ideal may reflect the primary narcissism of that group. In the novel, Erika’s mother who does not understand music at all relentlessly forces Erika into its yoke and compels her to endlessly pursue the music perfection, that is, a world famous musician. The narrator tells us that “[a] world-famous
8 Norman Mailer (1923‐2007) is an American writer and journalist.
pianist—that is Mother’s ideal” (24). The Mother’s ideal mirrors the collective ego ideal of the nation Austria. Austria is the homeland of many music masters such as Mozart and Schubert. The capital of Austria Vienna viewed as the City of Music is also the birthplace of classical music pieces. The past glory still remains in the mind of people in Austria but the masters are dead and the genius like Mozart never comes to the world twice.
In the novel, Jelinek repeatedly mentions “Vienna, the city of music!” (12) toward which she does not take a positive attitude. Like Erika’s mother, many parents do not understand art at all but compel their children to the yoke of art. As Jelinke depicts, “Many young people are still driven to art, as in olden times. Most of them are driven by their parents, who know nothing about art—only that it exists. And they’re so delighted that it exists!” (27). As in the glorious past, there are many young people who still devote themselves to music in Vienna.
These young people collectively strive for the ideal of music but the difference is that they are not driven by music but forced by their parents. Their culturally ignorant parents do not have the ability to appreciate music but only know that art exists. They gladly know that the existence of the art can help their children get rid of the swamp of the working class. Through the eyes of Erika, Jelinek further states, “For many of her students, music means climbing from the depths of the working class to the heights of artistic cleanliness” (28). Learning music provides many of Erika’s students with the possibilities of climbing on the social ladder for the working class. Music does not mean any mental sublimation and redemption but turns into the tool for the multitude to display the status and respectability in the capitalistic society. Striving for the music ideal is deteriorating into the pursuing material needs in Vienna. Erika is not the only case because there are still many Erika(s) who are forced by their parents to climb on the peak of music ideal. In the episode of the gym, one of Erika’s students lies down to take a rest due to her nose bleeding and Erika takes over her position to play the piano in the rehearsal. As the female returns, the narrator tells us, “Now the nose bleeder returns, fortified, and requests her place at the piano as well as her rights as a
soloist, a privilege she has arduously won against all the competition. She is a favorite pupil of Professor Kohut because she too has a mother who adopted an ambition as her own child”
(162). The girl arduously defeats other competitors to win the privilege to solely play the piano. Most importantly, the female student who is Erika’s favorite student also has a mother who is as ambitious as Erika’s. Via understatement, Jelinek reveals to the readers that this girl may be another Erika who is relentlessly forced to the yoke of music by her mother. Climbing on the top of the music world becomes the collective goal and the highest aspiration in the nation. Everyone desires to become the second Mozart in the city of music Vienna. This collective pursuit of the music ideal may massively produce the “music genius” like Erika. In one episode of Erika’s getting home late, she thinks that she will be scolded by her mother.
The narrator tells the readers Erika’s inner thoughts, “No art can possibly comfort HER then, even though art is credited with many things, especially an ability to offer solace. Sometimes, of course, art creates the suffering in the first place” (23). Art was regarded to offer spiritual solace and sublimation. In the novel, many people believe that art offers the material
assurance such as fame and fortune. However, to Erika, art by no mean provides solace but creates pain and suffering.
Most importantly, the collective pursuit of music turns into the collective aggression. As Freud argues, the ego ideal of an individual mirrors the collective ideal of a group to which this individual belongs. Erika’s mother puts her daughter on the path to pursue the peak of music perfection, which reflects the common ideal of a nation. As Erika’s mother always instructs Erika, one should always surpass others and keep within third place in any competition, otherwise anything less than the position of third place is all useless garbage.
Her mother constantly admonishes Erika to be more active and ambitious in her music career.
The Mother deems that surpassing and defeating others are beyond anything in the
competitive world of music. Her mother also warns Erika not to help her students pursue the music career and allow them to reach the top of the world. With the help of her mother, Erika
also aggressively beats the other competitors to pursue the music ideal. As the narrator notes,
“Mama pushes from below. . . . she is on someone else’s back, someone she has ousted with her back-stabbing” (24). Similarly, the nose bleeding student also “arduously” wins against other rivals in all the competition to seize the rights as the soloist. In Self and Society:
Narcissism, Collectivism, and the Development of Morals, Drew Westen points out
“personality as largely a reflection of culture” (288). The personality of an individual reflects the culture to which he belongs. The personality of Erika and her mother also mirrors the aggressive culture in the competitive world of music. Vienna the city of music becomes the city of competition and aggression. In order to reach the top of the world, defeating others becomes the collective goal. One should only defeat and “oust” the rivals to strive for the better possibilities to climb on the ladder of success in the highly competitive music world.
The collective intention of defeating or “stabbing” others can be viewed as the collective aggression. Jelinek writes, “Still, Erika has one goal in common with all the other interpreters:
to be better than the rest!” (14). In the novel, everyone like Erika intends to step on others’
back to win the privilege and chance of performance.
Conclusion
In Ovid’s myth, Tiresias predicts that Narcissus can live to a ripe age if he never knows himself. Narcissus finally realizes that reflection on the water is himself and fades away for his own image. Like Narcissus, Erika eventually knows herself and steps on the path of self-destruction at the end of the novel. But unlike Narcissus who is infatuated with himself, Erika loses any hope in herself and stabs herself in the chest. Erika realizes that the ideal of a world famous pianist is merely the illusion of deception at the beginning. She is unable to separate from her mother and her final hope Klemmer also denies her. She sacrifices
everything but receives nothing. What else can she do but step on the path of self-destruction?
In my introduction, I raise the question, what does Erika want? This question may lead to another question, what can a female (artist) want from a world which is lonely, capitalistic, and masculine? If we see the world through the perspectives of Freud and Jelinek, the utopia by no means exists and salvation which remains a concept would never happen.
In the first place, we believe that we are omnipotent at the center of the universe as in the mother’s womb. With our arrival in the world, our caregiver (usually our mother) is our first lover because the caregiver feeds and protects us. As we realize that we are not
omnipotent and turn to our parents, we only find that they are not always available to us and we are completely helpless. Our parents love us because they project their own narcissism onto us. We are merely the revival of the primary narcissism of our parents. As we start to love other people, we love the one according to the consideration of ourselves. In other words, the unconditional and redemptive love never exists because our love is out of necessity and crude drives. Any form of love is permeated with the egocentric needs and innate self-love.
Even before coming to the world, the primary narcissism already exists within each of us.
Accordingly, we are doomed to be isolated and lonely in the world.
In the second place, if you happen to arrive in the world without penis, you have to face the gender inequality and prejudices in addition to the above-mentioned difficulties. You may
not have the opportunity to receive the education in Shakespearean time. If you are as talented as Shakespeare, you will be tortured by your genius because no one will recognize your ability in the age of Elizabeth. You almost impossibly leave home to undertake a geographical or metaphorical journey to experience various lives in the time of Jane Austen.
If you are a piano professor in the modern capitalistic-patriarchal society, you can make a living on your own as men do. However, people are always questioning about your professional knowledge and want to correct your interpretation of Schubert. People may admire you not for your professional skills and talent but just because you are male. If you happen to have an ambitious mother, you will have triple “happiness.” For Jelinek, both man and woman are victims in the capitalistic society. Nevertheless, women always suffer more than men because this world is dominated by them. As Woolf indicates, if men and women are equally poor, women’s talent and ability will still not receive recognition because they have to face the gender bias in the patriarchal society.
Primary narcissism is the question of all questions. Primary narcissism, the original libidinal cathexis of the ego, exists even before we arrive in the world. As in our mother’s womb, we have the megalomaniacal thoughts, that is, we believe that our needs are
automatically satisfied and we are omnipotent at the center of our universe. Freud calls it the infantile primary narcissism which is the perfect sense of the self. However, this infantile primary narcissism will soon clash with the reality principle. After our arrival in the world, our infantile needs must be satisfied by the caregivers (usually our mother). We still believe that control everything because our mother will come to us and take care of our needs when we feel hungry and cry. Yet, we quickly find that our mother who is not always available for us may delay her attentions to us. As we cry, our mother may fail to immediately come to us and take care of our needs. We start to realize that everything is not completely under our command and we are not the center of the universe. This is the first narcissistic injury in our life and our primary narcissism, the original perfect sense of the self, comes to the first
disillusionment. This narcissistic belief in our perfection will continue to being intervened and shaken by the reality principle. As growing up, we are awakened by others’ admonitions and by our own critical judgment. We no longer retain the original perfect sense of the self anymore but we are still unable to give up our infantile primary narcissism. Accordingly, we create the ego ideal or the ideal image of the self and we will project our lost primary
narcissism onto this ego ideal which possesses all the perfection of our childhood. Based on these arguments, Freud indicates that the parents will also project their lost primary
narcissism onto their children and tend to idealize them. To Freud, the parental love is merely the revival of their own primary narcissism because their children are the embodiment of their lost perfection.
The ego ideal which represents “what one would like to be” refers to one’s ideals, values, ideas, goals, or the highest aspiration. This ego ideal may undergo modification along with the reality principle but we will never forgo this ideal image throughout our whole life.
Derived from the ego ideal, Freud points out that our mind has a special agency called conscience responsible for monitoring and measuring the actual ego according to the
standards of the ego ideal. The conscience which represents “what one should be” functions as the third person who keeps watching and overseeing our thinking and behaviors. Our parents’ criticism and admonitions will prompt us to form the ego ideal and our conscience on our parents’ behalf will monitor and criticize all our intentions and behaviors. Later, the authorities who instruct us, our fellow men, and the public opinions will also form this kind of critical influence like our parents. Freud further integrates his contention about the ego ideal and conscience into the parts of the superego. The conscience can be viewed as the superego itself and the ego ideal is the criterion by which the superego censors the actual ego.
The superego or the conscience will impel the ego to fulfill the demands and standards set forth by the ego ideal. If we fail to live up to the ego ideal, we will have the feelings of guilt and shame. Most importantly, the failure in the fulfillment of the ego ideal will lead to the
narcissistic injury to one’s sense of self-esteem. Eventually, Freud expands the ego ideal of an individual into that of a group. Analyzing the content of an individual’s ego ideal helps understand the structure of one group’s ego ideal. The ego ideal of an individual mirrors the collective ego ideal of the family, the class, the society, and the nation to which he belongs.
In other words, the collective ego ideal of one group simultaneously impacts on that of its individual. As mentioned above, our fellow men and the public opinions also form the critical influence on our ego ideal and conscience which are two components of the superego. The ego ideal is the remnant of one’s primary narcissism, that is to say, the bottom underlying the ego ideal is one’s narcissism. Similarly, the common ego ideal is the remnant of one group’s primary narcissism and reflects its narcissism.
Kohut and Kernberg extend Freud’s arguments and develop their theories on narcissism.
Kohut poses the concept of narcissistic rage which is the reaction to narcissistic injury, namely, the psychic injury or threat to the self-esteem in the context of the narcissistically vulnerable individual. Derived from Freud’s ideas on aggression, Kohut argues that narcissistic rage also belongs to the wide realm of human’s tendency to aggression and destruction. Nevertheless, this aggressive and destructive tendency will become devastating and dangerous if it originates from narcissistic rage. Whenever the sell-esteem of a
narcissistically vulnerable individual is impaired, he will desperately exact revenge and seek compensation for his narcissistic injury. The narcissistically injured cannot stop seeking revenge until he destroys the audacious offender who dares to oppose him or to outshine him.
In addition, Kohut contends that one’s narcissistic rage will also be provoked when he fails to fulfill the expectations from outside. The restless compulsion to seek revenge on the offender also stems from the problem of one’s primary narcissism. The real intention behind the revenge is to maintain the original and idealized perfect sense of the self. Like Kohut, Kernberg also indicates that the distance between one’s aspirations and achievements determines his regulation of self-esteem. The frustration of one’s fulfillment causes a
lowering of self-esteem which leads to the self-directed aggression. Besides, envy as the main manifestation of aggression characterizes the regular emotional state of the narcissistically vulnerable. Envy is a specific form of hatred of the “bad object” or others who have “good qualities” or possess something which is most desired by the narcissistically vulnerable. Envy would prompt the narcissistically vulnerable to take revenge on the “bad object” or “bad person.”
Furthermore, Freud observes that a child’s superego is built on the structure of its parents’ superego not on the model of its parents. Therefore, studying the content of Erika’s mother’s superego helps explain the one of Erika’s superego. The mother’s ego ideal
becomes Erika’s and the mother’s conscience (or the superego) Erika’s. The mother already creates and prepares the ego ideal for her daughter even before Erika comes to the world and develops her own ego ideal. “The world famous pianist” is her mother’s ideal and Erika sacrifices all her youth to strive for this ideal which is never achieved. Erika is haunted by the ideal of the world famous pianist and frustrated by her failure in fulfillment of this ideal.
Additionally, the mother constantly instills the self-centered value and false ideology in Erika.
Finally, Erika sadistically treats others just like her mother treats her. The ideal of the mother also reflects the collective ideal of Austria and many Erika(s) are forced by their parents to climb on the peak of music career. This collective turns into the collective aggression since
Finally, Erika sadistically treats others just like her mother treats her. The ideal of the mother also reflects the collective ideal of Austria and many Erika(s) are forced by their parents to climb on the peak of music career. This collective turns into the collective aggression since