The Cursed Man
Description
In Metamorphoses, Ovid tells the story of a Nymph named Echo who could only speak by repeating the phrases uttered by others. This curse was bestowed upon her by the goddess, Hera, a punishment for distracting her and allowing Zeus to successfully hide his infidelities. Echo one day fell in love with Narcissus, an arrogant young man whose beauty was said to rival that of Apollo. When Narcissus entered into her woods, she followed him, eager to cry out, but unable to do so. Eventually, upon realizing that he had become separated from his companions, Narcissus cried out, “Is anyone here?” Echo joyfully replied “Here,” and rushed to embrace him. Scornfully, Narcissus rejected her, just as he had done with countless other potential lovers. Echo became so overcome with grief that she faded away until nothing but her voice remained. The goddess, Nemesis, angered by Narcissus’s shallow and uncaring nature, doomed him to fall in love with his own reflection. Narcissus one day peer into Echo’s pond, see his own reflection, and fall madly in love with himself. He would retain that loving gaze upon his own image until he died.
But what if Narcissus reincarnated, living in this century, trying to free himself from the curse?
His appearance has changed, but it doesn’t change his perspective of himself.
“Finally! I’ve been waiting for you since this morning, Sir. My name is Lee Taeyong. I heard Mr.Leechaiyakul is the best shaman in this country. Please help me! I’m cursed. I can’t love anything… anyone but myself. I know this is crazy, but I can remember everything on my previous life, as Narcissus. Please… I don’t want to die pathetically like that anymore.”
“Hello, Mr.Lee. How could you find our home? My father has retired from his business since years ago, but sometimes he accepts people who still looking for his help. I’m sorry, but he is not at home, been visiting my sister in Bangkok since yesterday, and I’m sure he will comeback next week. How about getting consultation with me? But scientifically, not mystically? I think you really need counseling. Please come to my clinic the day after tomorrow, here is the address. I’m sorry, I really need to get something inside my father’s home right now and fly to Jeju.” The black haired man gave his name card to Taeyong who looks really upset.
But before the shorter man closed the door, Taeyong held it open. “Chittaphon Leechaiyakul. Psychologist.” Taeyong snorted. “I’m not crazy! What I’ve told you is REAL!”
Chittaphon flashed him a warm smile. “I understand.”
“No! You don’t understand! You’re judging me now! I know people like you who think you guys are the smartest man alive on this earth! You know nothing! Stop telling me I have the hallucinations! I’m not a schizophrenic! I’m not a narcissistic! I’m not suffering of narcissistic personality disorder, okay?! ! You guys even using my name as the reference! I’m different with those narcissistic people in this era! ” Taeyong glared sharply at Chittaphon, but Chittaphon just replied Taeyong’s rage with a tender gaze.
“I know you’re special, Mr.Lee. You’re different. I see, you had met other psychologists, but they don’t understand you well.” Chittaphon tried empathizing.
The silver haired man scoffed and rolled his eyes. “You guys are just a bunch of idiots!” He crumpled Chittaphon’s name card and smirked arrogantly. “What I need the most is the shaman power. I’m cursed!”
Chittaphon still smiled warmly despite the insult given by the young man in front of him. “I can help you. I have God’s power too, like my dad.”
“Really?” Taeyong was starring at the shorter boy doubtfully.
Chittaphon nodded, still smiling. “Hmmm.”
Taeyong sighed. “Ok. I’ll come to your office the day after tomorrow.”
“Alright, Mr.Lee. I’ll clear all of my schedules on that day, and reserve it only for you.”
Chittaphon’s smile is really blinding and breathtaking, but Taeyong didn’t feel anything. He just nodded once. “Okay.”
“See you later, Mr.Lee.” Chittaphon bowing politely, but Taeyong ignored him and just turned his heels away.
Chittaphon sighed. Honestly, he never believes in the magic, spirit, and other supernatural things, despite the fact that his father is a well known shaman in the country. God’s power? What the hell! He doesn’t possess it! And so does his father, as he believes. He was just pretending in front of Taeyong, so Taeyong would believe him and open up to him later.
“I just want to help him. His disorder seems severe.”
Chittaphon is not the best psychologists in the world, as he realizes himself still need a lot of practices and gain more knowledge, but he always succeeded helping his clients because he never abandon his clients in the midway and always welcome his clients with the genuine acceptance, unconditional love, and simply because he loves his career as a psychologist.
“It’s a pain in the handling an NPD, moreover with the symptoms of schizophrenia. But it’s challenging. I need to find out more about him.” Chittaphon smiled as he ran upstairs to his old room. He rarely stays at his father’s home, but almost all of his stuffs are still there.
“I will need these inventories too for Taeyong so I can diagnose him more precise, and this book, and this book too. I rarely got an NPD client. I need to re-read my college’s books on the plane later and search for the newest research journals. I’m sure I can help him.” Chittaphon smiled as he busily stuffing his books inside his big suitcase.
But what if this time Chittaphon was wrong? He can’t help Taeyong with his knowledge as a psychologist only. It’s so much more complicated than he thought at first.
Foreword
The mythological figure, Narcissus, was a handsome, self-aggrandizing, and vain young man who fell in love with his own reflection in a body of water. He was unable to take his eyes off of himself and slowly pined away at the waterside. Psychologists have come to know personalities like his as narcissistic.
Narcissism is a personality trait characterized by a sense of superiority and a desire for respect and admiration from others. It is a subclinical personality trait on which individuals from the general population vary from one another. Narcissists (i.e., those scoring high on narcissism scales) feel superior to others, believe they are entitled to privileges, and crave respect and admiration from others. They are certain that the world would be a much better place if they ruled it.
Narcissists crave respect and admiration. If narcissists truly feel superior, why would they so desperately want others to validate their superiority? One popular view is that narcissists crave such validation because deep down inside, they dislike themselves. Narcissists crave validation because their sense of superiority is precarious— much more precarious than high self-esteemers’ sense of worth. Although everyone can be worthy, not everyone can be superior. Indeed, the quest for superiority is a zero-sum game: For every winner there is a loser, and for every loser there is a winner.
Thus, narcissists may need continuous validation from others to believe that they are still the winner and not yet the loser. Do narcissists succeed in attaining external validation? Because they are charming at first sight, they receive validation at the early stages of acquaintance. Yet unlike high self-esteemers, narcissists have an antagonistic orientation toward others: They are disagreeable, arrogant, and manipulative, and they also look down on others (Brummelman et.al, 2016).
Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)
Diagnostic Criteria :
A asive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicatedby five (or more) of the following:
1. Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements).
2. Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love.
3. Believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions).
4. Requires excessive admiration.
5. Has a sense of entitlement (i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations).
6. Is interpersonally exploitative (i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends).
7. Lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others.
8. Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her.
9. Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes.
(APA, DSM-V, 2013)
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Schizophrenia is the prototypical psychotic disorder. Not only it is the most common psychosis, but schizophrenia tends to involve abnormalities in all five of the emphasized symptom domains: hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking (speech), grossly disorganized or abnormal motor behavior (including catatonia), and negative symptoms. Like the DSM-5 neurodevelopmental disorders, schizophrenia is viewed as a neuropsychiatric disorder with complex genetics and a clinical course that tends to begin during a predictable stage of development. Whereas the neurodevelopmental disorders tend to begin during childhood, symptoms of schizophrenia tend to reliably develop during late adolescence and early adulthood (APA, DSM-V, 2013).
References:
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders : DSM-V.
Brummelman, Eddie. Thomaes, Sander. Sedikides, Constantine. (2016). Sepparating Narcissism From Self-Esteem. Current Directions in Psychological Science, vol 25(1), 8-13. SAGE. DOI: 10.1177/0963721415619737.
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A/N : Please don’t hate me for posting this new TaeTen fanfic! >_<
I know I still have the ongoing story, "Sweet Dangerous Blood”, but if I don’t write “The Cursed Man” as soon as I got the idea, I’m afraid I’ll forget it. :))
But, don’t worry, “Sweet Dangerous Blood” is still my priority. :))
As for this story, I will not updating too fast like what I usually do for my other stories, because this story is the most difficult and complicated story I’ve ever written. There’s myth, fantasy, and science related. I need a lot of time to make sure that the 1st chapter is good enough to be published here. Hope you can understand. Please don’t rush me. :)
So, I guess we’ll see each other more often at “Sweet Dangerous Blood”! ^^
Thank you!
~Azu~
Poster credit to LittleSnowflake
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