The The Visual Culture of the Selfie from the Perspective of “Culture of Narcissism”

This essay explores the visual culture of the selfie through the lens of art history, particularly focusing on self-portraits and the “Culture of Narcissism.” It examines key works such as Albrecht Dürer’s Christ as the Man of Sorrows, Self-Portrait of the Artist Holding a Thistle, Self-Portrait with White Gloves, and Self-Portrait in a Fur Collar; Andrzej Dudek-Dürer’s Self-Crucifixion and Multiplied Metaphysical and Telepathic Self-Portrait III; Caravaggio’s Narcissus; Salvador Dalí’s Metamorphosis of Narcissus; and Jacek Malczewski’s Christ Before Pilate. The second part of the essay delves into Jacques Lacan’s concept of the “mirror stage,” a developmental phase occurring between six and eighteen months of age, where a child transitions from the real to the imaginary order. This stage involves a child’s holistic inspection of their reflection, resulting in “primary narcissism” – a self-love rooted in autoeroticism before the formation of the ego. In the conclusion, the essay reflects on the selfie as a modern manifestation of these historical and psychological themes. By comparing the selfie to classical self-portraits and the Narcissus motif, the essay argues that contemporary self-photography revisits the same narcissistic mechanisms seen in art history. Caravaggio’s depiction of Narcissus is the prototype of the selfie, which, through its embrace of self-reflection, continues the legacy of self-portraiture and it has become the icon of neuroaesthetics.