Narcissism, Shame and Rage in "The Picture of Dorian Gray": A Psychoanalytic Overview By Claudia Dias Ferreira This essay's primary focus is to identify and discuss the narcissistic aspects of the character of Dorian Gray, from Oscar Wilde's novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray". Concepts such as shame and rage within the narcissistic personality structure have been anchored in the theories of Freud, Alice Miller, Kernberg, Kohut, Klein and Wurmser. The Diagnosis and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IIIR) defines narcissism as "a pretentious show of self-importance, such as an obsession with illusions of endless success, power, radiance, beauty, or ideal love; exhibitionism; a cool indifference or rage, subservience, shame, and emptiness; a conviction of entitlement, manipulation, over-idealization, or deflation; and lack of compassion." (Lewis,1995:165) Kerneberg (1975) claims that "the narcissistic character pathology is (…) caused by a libidinal investment in a pathological grandiose self, consisting of an amalgam of real self- representations, ideal self-representations and ideal object-representations and the simultaneous repression, projection or disavowal of negatively toned self- and object-representations." (Cooper and Maxwell, :11-12) This amalgam leads the narcissistic personality to consider self and object as one (Kernberg 1975) – as illustrated in "The Picture of Dorian Gray", where through the illusionary mirror effect reflecting the various split off fragments of the author's ego, a full picture is created with Gray becoming one with his portrait. The Picture of Dorian Gray contains the reflection of Wilde's own narcissism and grandiosity, the Victorian society's reflection, the reflection of Basil the painter who "has put too much of himself" in Dorian's portrait, the reflection of Lord Henry who moulded Gray's personality to his own moral values, and finally the reflection Dorian Gray in his portrait – all of these create an illusionary effect – the reflection of all these narcissistic aspects working like a set of mirrors perpetuating an infinite image where everything is pretence, and there is no authenticity. Gray is a young aristocrat, a talented musician, educated, refined, and beautiful. From the age of one, he has been raised by a grandfather who didn't want or love him, after ordering the killing of his father, and causing his mother to die of a broken heart. From the analytical viewpoint, Gray has been deprived of a primary connection to a love-object; unable to cathect narcissistically, or to create a meaningful connection with a replacement mother as a child - this would account for a defective development of the ego during the primary narcissism stage. (Freud 1914). "In people whose libidinal development has suffered disturbance, (…) that in their later choice of love-objects they have taken as a model, not their mother but their selves. They are plainly seeking themselves as a love-object, and are exhibiting a type of object-choice which must be termed "narcissistic"." Freud (1914) ‘On Narcissism', 10) Gray's social circle is described as hedonistic and narcissistic, with corruption being accepted as long as it is hidden. The fact that he doesn't have any significant relationships until he meets Lord Henry and Basil Hallward can be another contributory factor to his secondary narcissism as an environmental cause. Regarding contributory factors to the development of secondary narcissism, there are two main currents of thought: the independents defend that the narcissistic personality develops from negative environmental causes, and the Kleinians, who root the cause of narcissism in the infant itself and its oral-rage during very early development. Lord Henry is an aristocrat, ten years older than Gray, and with cynical views about everything. From the moment they meet it becomes apparent that Henry admires Dorian's beauty and his lack of self- awareness; Dorian finds Henry's flattery intoxicating. Later, Henry will address Dorian as "Prince Charming", and Dorian will reciprocate by calling him "Prince Paradox" – they narcissistically cathect one another, in an elaborate "dance of peacocks" where one flaunts his intellect and the other his beauty. Both Henry and Basil contribute to Dorian's creation of a false-self, Henry as the introjected seductive mother trying to keep Dorian to herself and preventing him from developing other object relations; Basil, with his admiration for Dorian's physical attributes, investing too much of his libido in their relationship to the point of disintegration, and not allowing for the authentic reflection of Gray to emerge. There is a strong parallel between Dorian Gray and the Greek myth, Narcissus: who youthful, beautiful and unaware of himself, rejects the love of Echo the nymph, causing her to die of a broken heart, and later falls in love with himself, when seeing his own reflection on the water, thinking that he is looking at another human being. He drowns trying to reach out to the love-object that is him. The moment Basil presents Gray with his realistic portrait we witness simultaneously the birth of a narcissist and his first narcissistic wound. Gray is devastated by the thought of his beauty and youth fading, and with it, the love and admiration of his friend Basil, while his portrait will remain untouched. He expresses the desire to swap places with the portrait – unknown to him; his wish is granted. When Gray and Sibyl meet, their false-selves are attracted to one another, but just like Narcissus could not love Echo, he doesn't truly love Sybil. Sybil is a young actress with a dysfunctional family background, who plays Shakespeare night after night in a second-rate theatre, to her, he is "Prince Charming." Later in the narrative, he is also called by the same appellative by his friend Henry in a jocose reference to his former relationship with Sybil, and also by the prostitutes in the opium den. And he is flattered, and also fascinated by her talent, and the fact that she plays a different heroine every night. He senses the admiration she will inspire in his friends and the public in general, and he makes plans to marry her and to establish her in the West End. Being an actress, Sybil is reduced to using another's words to express her feelings, like Echo did, due to Juno's curse. Once Sybil starts to develop real feelings of love for Gray, she realizes the artificiality of the words in her plays, and in a deliberate gesture of creative passion, she refuses to lend her feelings to her character, and gives a mediocre performance on the day Gray had invited his friends Basil and Henry to watch her. To Gray, Sybil is a narcissistic supply, an object of desire, capable of causing envy on others. Once she has lost her talent as an actress, not even her beauty can save her – Gray feels deeply betrayed, and vexed in front of his friends. Narcissistically wounded, deprived of the envy he thought he ought to inspire in Basil and Henry, he becomes possessed by contempt and rage, insulting her and breaking off their engagement. On that very night, broken-hearted, Sibyl takes some poison and dies. Once at home, Gray is face to face with his portrait and notices its first change: the hint of a cruel smile. At that moment he realizes that his wish to trade fate with the portrait has been granted and that has become a mirror for his soul, the portrait will now bear the consequences of his acts. Desperate to repair the damage to his portrait, and unaware that Sibyl is dead; he writes a long letter of apology and promises to rekindle their relationship. When he learns of Sibyl's death, he realises that it is beyond his control to repair the portrait – he suffers his third narcissistic wound. Not only his narcissistic supply escaped his control by committing suicide, but she also robbed him of the chance to make amends and to restore his portrait to perfection. "All instances of narcissistic rage have, nevertheless, certain features in common because they all arise from the matrix of a narcissistic or prenarcissistic view of the world. It is this archaic mode of experience which explains the fact that those who are in the grip of narcissistic rage show total lack of empathy toward the offender. It explains the unmodified wish to blot out the offence which was perpetrated against the grandiose self and the unforgiving fury which arises when the control over the mirroring self-object is lost or when the omnipotent self-object is unavailable." (Kohut, 1972: 385) And from then on, Gray escalates into a life of depravity, and shame. Beauty might be in the eye of the beholder, but shame is there too "Shame is particularly likely to be projected, as ideas of reference, delusions of being watched, spied upon, controlled; all eyes seem to express scorn and betrayal and to follow the individual's each step." Wurmser; ‘Shame: the veiled companion to Narcissism'; The Many Faces of Shame, 87. In the case of Dorian Gray – Beauty is what renders him unique, and worthy of admiration to his contemporaries. A beauty that will never die that will not be marred by ageing or illness, a beauty that embodies the Greek aestheticism of complete perfection, in body and soul. Or so it is perceived. But Gray has turned his eye inward Wurmser (1989) "The Mask of Shame" identifies the eye as the part of the body that holds shame, a dual process of self-observation and of exposure – the feeling that everybody else can see our flaws. , and has been able to see the terrific imperfection of his soul by looking at his portrait and observing the changes his actions effect on the painting. The words shame, shameful, and shameless appear thirty-four times in the novel. Shame and guilt are often confused. According to Nathanson, "In guilt we are punished for an action taken; in shame, we are punished for some quality of the self, some unalterable fact. Guilt limits action; shame guards the identity. Shame is the effect associated with narcissism." (Nathanson, 1987: 250) According to Miller, shame and narcissism are "two sides of the same medal." The grandiosity of the narcissistic personality is a defence against shame, the narcissist having such a fragile ego that can easily be wounded, and must be protected at all costs from revealing any insecurity, inadequacy or reliance on others, lest its false-ego, the scaffolding of grandiosity will collapse, bringing feelings of shame and embarrassment - ultimately love loss. Some narcissistic personalities like to court risk, and to live on the fine edge between false social respectability and hidden depravity. Gray seems to be one of them: he thrives to be admired as an aesthetic ideal of perfection, at the same time he vexes those who he corrupts with depraved sexual practices and drug abuse. As Miller explains, there are those who have suffered their mother's rejection, flaunt their perversion as to re-externalize the rejecting mother – what they seek is not society's approval "but the disgusted and horrified eyes." (Miller,1987:112-113) To avoid shame, actions have to be kept secret "Whereas guilt motivates the patient to confess, shame motivates one to conceal." "Secrets as a manifestation of shame" Morrison: 82,163. . "Secret" appears fifty-two times in the novel. Fourteen are related to looking for the meaning of life; thirty-seven are directly related to concealment caused by shame. Both types of secret have a link to narcissism. Although it is easier to understand how the keeping of a secret protects one from shame, enabling him to preserve his façade of narcissistic grandiosity, the preoccupation with finding the secret to a happy life, is also an important indication of a narcissistic personality – It reveals the narcissist's inability to understand and to master human relationships, the desire for a quick and easy to follow formula that it will keep them safe from the harm of being hurt by others, and that will enable them to gain the love and approval they seek, without having to form deep connections. Gray's portrait with its tell-tale signs of depravity, greed, and aggression; it is a direct attack on his narcissistic grandiosity scaffolding – his beauty and youth. Again and again, he locks himself in the room, where his secret shame lies, holding a mirror to compare his beautiful face with the disfigured portrait, in a representation of his fragmented schizoid self. "Due to the fact that a breakup of the body-self has occurred and that the fragments of the body-self which cannot be retained within the total organization of the body-self become an unbearably painful burden and are therefore removed. The schizophrenic (…) looks into the mirror for hours and days attempts to unite his fragmenting body-self with the aid of his gaze." (Kohut, 1972:375) In narcissism, there is a split between intellect and emotions. During the early years through the relationship with the self-object: the main carer, often the mother, mirrors the child, or in other words, allows them to narcissistically cathect her. If this mirror for the child is a true mirror, the child will find their true-self, but if the mirror has been distorted by the self- object's characteristics, the child will have a representation of a false self: a self that had to accommodate to the self-objects demands and needs in order to gain acceptance, love and recognition as an individual. The child who has been prevented from "seeing their image" in the tranquil lake of their parents' eyes, full of acceptance for who they truly are, will become like Narcissus - enamoured of their reflection, of their representation, and without knowing their true self. To maintain their false self, the narcissist has to split off aspects of their personality that don't fit in their representation of a perfect self. This illusionary image of perfection can be easily shattered, to keep their false appearance in check they carry an imaginary mirror in front of them at all times - this mirror encumbers their contact with others, and what they most long for - the mirroring and the connection. Ultimately the love and acceptance they crave for are tragically missed. Narcissism in borderline personality disorders and the oscillation between neurosis and psychosis has been studied in depth by Kernberg, and it can be represented as the looking at, and then looking away from the imaginary mirror - the continuous effort of trying to adjust the false self-representation and to accommodate to a reality that eventually shatters - the shards of the broken mirror being the splitting personalities of the psychotic-schizoid individual. In the case of Dorian Gray, when he could no longer bridge the gap between his ego and his ego ideal, someone had to die. Basil demanded to know if the rumours of his moral corruption were true. Gray could have denied them and send Basil away, or admit to his actions and seek redemption, but he chose to blame the painter for his moral degradation – by showing him the painting, he effectively made Basil a scape-goat for his shame and executed him. There is, according to Liz Good (Good, Liz; Addiction as a Narcissistic Defence: the Importance of Control Over the Object in Narcissistic Wounds: 148.), a strong link between the drug abuse and the "holding off an acute psychosis (…) the psychotic attempts to alter reality; whereas the addict aims to modify his consciousness to avoid dysphoric affects." Drug addiction is also part of Gray's defensive mechanisms for dealing with shame. Once he kills Basil, he runs away from his act and escapes into an opium den in the shadowy part of the city, where he is well known, feared and despised. In the Narcissus myth was the intangibility of the self that caused his death, when he so loved his self- representation that he chose to merge with it and die. According to Freud, and the intrapersonal theory, shame is held in the gap between Ego and Ego Ideal. i.e. "I'm ashamed of not being whom I ought to be." In Dorian Gray, it is the latent Kleinian rage of his helplessness in the face of mother's milk that produces envy and seeks to destroy. As he becomes the "negative narcissist" Abraham (1922) "negative narcissism" in which sufferers "are in a constant state of anxious self-dissatisfaction. What is narcissistic about negative narcissists is that they are as self-preoccupied as their grandiose cousins, but are locked into self-hatred rather than self-love." (Holmes, 2001: 13), he destroys his self-representation, piece by piece, through his bad deeds, until he can no longer face the reprobation and the shame of his consciousness, his superego staring at him, showing him his self, putrid to the core, hollow and deaden. He plunges the knife into his portrait in a final bid to preserve the false self that brought him the love and envy of others, but it is he who dies, his physical body showing all the ugliness of his true self This death is the logical consequence of the fixation on the false self. It is not only the "beautiful", "good", and pleasant feelings that make us alive, deepen our existence, and give us crucial insight - but often precisely the unacceptable and unadapted ones which we prefer to escape: impotence, shame, envy, jealousy, confusion and mourning." (Miller, 1987: 69) , his portrait rejuvenated and beautiful as he once were – before his first narcissistic wound. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" starts where "Narcissus" stops - Dorian Gray is the Narcissus of his time Wilde "De Profundis", a long letter written during his incarceration, where he deals with his narcissism and shame. He compares the 19th Century Victorian society to the Philistines that Jesus mocked for their "whited sepulchre of respectability." In the Greek myth, the moment Narcissus falls in love with himself, he has to die – the Greek ideal of perfection requires symbiosis of body and soul, it doesn't allow for moral degradation not to be endured by the physical body; The "whited sepulchre" society of Gray is the ultimate humus for growing the worms that gnaw at his soul while his body remains youthful and beautiful as white lilies and red roses. REFERENCES Ed Bronstein Catalina (2001) Kleinian Theory, a Contemporary Perspective; London: Whurr Publishers Good Liz ‘Addiction as a Narcissistic Defence: The Importance of Control Over The Object' in ed Cooper Judy and Maxwell Nilda, Narcissistic Wounds; London: Whurr Publishers, 1995 Holmes Jeremy (2001) Narcissism; Cambridge: Icon Books UK Kernberg Otto (1990) Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism; London: Jason Aronson Inc Kohut, H. (1972) ‘Thoughts on Narcissism and Narcissistic Rage' in Psychoanal. St. Child, 27:360-400 Lewis Michael (1995) Shame, the exposed self; New York: The Free Press. Miller Alice (1991) The Drama of Being a Child; London: Virago Press Limited Nathanson Donald L. (1987) The Many Faces of Shame; USA: The Guilford Press. Rosenfeld Herbert (1990) Impasse and Interpretation: therapeutic and anti-therapeutic factors in the psychoanalytic treatment of psychotic, borderline, and neurotic patients; London: Tavistock / Routledge Wilde Oscar, (1891), The Picture of Dorian Gray, London: Penguin Books 2003 Wurmser, L., 1989 ‘Shame. The Underside of Narcissism: Andrew P. Morrison' Hillsdale, NJ/London: The Analytic Press, 1989; in Psychoanal Q., 60:667-672 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 1987.