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In Defense of Defenselessness: K ierkegaard's Critique of an Accepted Narcissism
Author(s) -
Roberts David
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the heythrop journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.127
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1468-2265
pISSN - 0018-1196
DOI - 10.1111/heyj.12005
Subject(s) - narcissism , argument (complex analysis) , denial , citation , psychoanalysis , philosophy , sociology , theology , classics , law , psychology , history , political science , medicine
The man with a clear head is the man who . . . looks life in the face, realises that everything in it is problematic, and feels himself lost. As this is the simple truth – that to live is to feel oneself lost. Whoever accepts this has already begun to find himself, to be on firm ground. Instinctively, as do the shipwrecked, he will look round for something to which to cling, and that tragic, ruthless glance, absolutely sincere, because it is a question of salvation, will cause him to bring order into the chaos of his life. . . . He who does not really feel himself lost, is lost without remission; that is to say, he never finds himself, never comes up against his own reality.