Invisible Women

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Lou Andreas-Salome did not think of narcissism as a self-obsession where one removes self from all others in an attempt to differentiate, to display superiority. Instead, she understood it to be the moment where a person — almost in confusion — sees a dissolution of self, when self dissolves into its surroundings, a simultaneity of self and everything else. This accounted for silent dialogues between herself and the doctor. This accounted for the way heroes believe they cannot be killed, the way all those boys went to war, cramming their bodies into trenches to allow themselves to sink fully into the mud.