Narcissism in Dostoevsky: the Divine Corpse

Narcissism involves not recognizing a soul — a meaningful inner reality — in others, but doing so indulgently within oneself. Hence, there is but one soul in all existence — and it will never see another.

The metaphysics of the narcissist: to fail to witness the other’s soul by believing yours is alone.

The key feature in narcissism is a pathological lack of empathy. It is through this lack of empathy that the narcissist’s symptomatology — breadcrumbing, gaslighting, manipulating, splitting — emerge. Take away one of the behaviors, and the others will remain. But make a narcissist empathetic, and all his symptoms will disappear. One can only narcissize insofar as one lacks empathy.

This is the psychological model of narcissism. The spiritual model of narcissism involves failing to recognize others’ souls, which explains the lack of empathy. The narcissist may experience others as zombies, only with emotions: displaying emotions on the outside without a consciousness on the inside that gives those feelings meaning. The narcissist sees others’ inner world, it just doesn’t matter. That is the narcissist’s religion.

Dostoevsky, a devout yet troubled Christian, wrote about atheism more meaningfully and powerfully than any atheist ever would. His dark characters do a better job of pushing God away, of negating His existence, of criticizing His failures and of experiencing His absence than anyone real…