Women, narcissism, and Okamoto Kanoko. Shibusawa Tatsuhiko

Abstract

All married men and men who engage in conventional sex have undoubtedly had firsthand experience of the recidivist self-centeredness that is the narcissism of women. It is less difficult for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a woman to separate from her own self and regard herself objectively. Among the recently increasing numbers of homosexual men there are also undoubtedly those who revel in a highly subjective form of narcissism, identical to that of women, that is closely associated with the physical body. But this is a separate issue. For my task here is to discuss the mysterious entity referred to as the woman writer. Given that she is a variety of woman, the woman writer will doubtless be subject to the same obsessive self-centeredness that afflicts all women. This is her biological fate. And since Okamoto Kaneko is also a woman, we must expect that she too will be subject to the same effect.