Narcissus Revisited: A Link Between Mirroring and Twinship Selfobject Experiences—A Discussion of Nancy VanDerHeide's, “A Dynamic Systems View of the Transformational Process of Mirroring”

Abstract

VanDerHeide (2009) reconfigured the classical concept of mirroring selfobject experience to encompass a relational, nonlinear dynamic systems perspective. In response, I present a brief study of the metaphorical notion of the mirror and an examination of the Narcissus myth focusing on the failure of early mirroring. A consideration of the tenets of a systems perspective informs the unpacking of a clinical example presented in VanDerHeide's article. In the face of a chronic pattern of aversiveness and humiliation, and at the “edge of chaos,” a creative and novel attunement and authenticity emerge intersubjectively moving the therapist and her patient from mirroring selfobject experience to twinship selfobject experience.