Thesis anyone?

Anyone need a thesis in psychology or literature?  How about 'Narcissistic Personality Disorder in Classic Literature?'  There's much worse out there, let me assure you, my favorite being 'Oedipal Complex in Good Night Moon,' yeah, I don't get it either!  In my last post, I mused upon why so many famous and beloved authoresses seem to be so familiar with the idea, namely Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, and L.M. Montgomery.  What is it about narcissists that inspires great writing?  Is it that they make such lovely villains?  That's certainly necessary for a good story, but what makes a good writer?  Basically it is someone who can so describe in words, landscapes, people, situations, and other complex realities that we can see them in our mind's eye, feel them in our hearts, acknowledge them with our mind, all without ever actually seeing them, but feeling that we have known them in person.

I propose there is a four fold reason for this phenomenon in those significantly influenced by a narcissist.  This is not to say that every great writer was raised by a narcissist or all children of narcissists will be great writers!  Rather it seems far too curious a coincidence to be mere happenstance, thus I may theorize at will, but I leave it to the biographers and historians to say who the narcissist might have been in each of these women's lives.  First, a soul must express itself for we are creative beings, and when all other arts are forbidden, the imagination is sometimes our sole escape, creating elaborate worlds, stories, and characters to people our bleak and colorless lives to such an extent that our inner world is far more lovely and intricate than our real surroundings and relationships.

Second, when you live daily with such a person, who questions every blink, breath, movement, thought, look, sneeze and so forth, when you can hardly breath without criticism or permission, you become a keen observer of human behavior, learning painfully how to minimize the offense given for such grievous sins as hiccups and laughter or tears, you learn to read the least signs of others' moods and dispositions, lest you fall afoul of an already precarious situation by some inadvertent blunder that might have been prevented had you been paying attention to the other's mood.  This familiarity with humanity in general and in particular would be very useful for a budding writer in developing characters and cultures.

Third, when you have no solace in human company or relationships, solitude and peaceful surroundings are then your only solace (at least before social media!).  You escape outside (no matter the weather, it must be better than the subzero temperatures withindoors) and wander far and wide, learning to see beauty and hope everywhere, developing a love of nature and all her moods and aspects or perhaps histories or museums or fairy tales or a hundred other escapes fill that aching void in your heart that should be filled by human love and kindness.  As you learn the many facets of human behavior and mood, so too do you fill your mind with the intricacies of your given retreat, be it a forest or a drawing room, which in turn might allow you to recreate the phenomenon in words for others' perusal.

Lastly, writing is an escape, an outlet for otherwise pent up feelings, emotions, and experiences.  When you are not allowed either to laugh or cry, sometimes your only outlet is words, words, words.  Sometimes we write to understand ourselves or the world about us, sometimes to save ourselves from madness or exploding with the pressure.  Our fantasy worlds become more real and beautiful than our daily lives, into it we pour all our stifled passions and heady visions, so drab on the outside, but alive and bubbling as a fountain within and as easily staunched.  If you do write the thesis on this, remember to cite this article!  Enjoy!