The Nemesis: Everyone's Own Personal Satan


	The Nemesis: Everyone's Own Personal Satan

chestnut501

8-28-2009 5:23 PM

185 views

tags:

life, science, psychology, personality, identity, self

chestnut501 says:

Knowing who we are by knowing who we are not

1 Comment |

Add a Comment

11-29-2009 1:05 PM

GridIron

Very interesting concept. I find, especially in American society, that even if you do not have a nemesis, you at least an adversary to compete with. You know the whole my team versus their team idea. It surrounds us.

Login to Comment. Not a member yet? Sign up

Today's Top Clips

visit the Top Clips page

View the Top Clips from August 28, 2009

Embed This Clip In Your Site...

<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/27785928-0479-4e1c-b966-6575acb98811/3F560BBA-31D0-4879-8178-1B3CA96DCC14/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/genius-and-madness/200903/the-nemesis-everyones-own-personal-satan" href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/genius-and-madness/200903/the-nemesis-everyones-own-personal-satan" style="font-size: 11px;">www.psychologytoday.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/genius-and-madness/200903/the-nemesis-everyones-own-personal-satan">Recently I've been thinking about a concept that really has no precise name, but 
which I started calling the "Nemesis." I was teaching a class called 
Autobiography, Fiction, and Self-Invention, and I was struck by the number of 
people, my students included, whose life story prominently featured an 
"adversary" figure. This nemesis tends to haunt the person's early childhood. 
He/She is typically a classmate or a person in the neighborhood. The nemesis 
incites a lot of fear and anxiety, and a feeling of foreboding.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/genius-and-madness/200903/the-nemesis-everyones-own-personal-satan">It seems to me that, even if our life in fact lacks a genuine nemesis figure, we 
more or less invent one. Why? As a means of depicting conflict, as a projected 
repository for what Jung might have called our "shadow," as the alternate self 
that we do NOT aspire to,</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/genius-and-madness/200903/the-nemesis-everyones-own-personal-satan"> We know who we are by knowing who we are <STRONG>not</STRONG>, just as much as 
knowing what we would like to be and do. </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/genius-and-madness/200903/the-nemesis-everyones-own-personal-satan"><P>So thank you, nemeses, for the small part you played in helping me know who I am.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/3F560BBA-31D0-4879-8178-1B3CA96DCC14/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

New from the makers of Clipmarks: Amplify.com - Don't just share the news...Amplify it!

Clipmarks: Home; New Clips; Top Clips; Dashboard

Popular Topics: News; Life; Science; Technology; Entertainment

Get Started: Sign Up; Install Clipping Tool; How Clipping Works; Clip-to-Blog™; ClipSearch

Tools and Resources: FAQ; ClipWeek; Top Clippers; Top Tags; Site Map

About Clipmarks: About Us; Contact; Copyright; Privacy; EULA

Search Options

Today's Top Clips