“Expanding Empires, Expanding Selves: Colonialism, the Novel, and Robinson Crusoe” by Brett McInelly suggests it will detail the relationship between the expanding notion of the “self” alongside the expanding British Empire through the cultural artifact, the novel Robinson Crusoe; however, due to the fact that this essay conflates the terms self and narcissism, using these ideas interchangeably, this interesting argument yields a faulty conclusion. In this essay, I will apply the definitions of self and narcissism to McInelly’s interesting ideas, thereby illuminating the proper distinctions–boundaries–between the effects of what he dubs “inward-gazing,” which could produce narcissistic behavior as he suggests. It could, alternatively, produce valuable insights leading to self-improvement and “true mastery.” 

The “inward-gazing” and “mirrors” that McInelly describes as functioning in Crusoe don’t necessarily need to lead to British exploitation–consumption–of the Other. I argue that the lack of inward-gazing and attention to the true inward self contributes to harmful behaviors of colonialism such as slavery and dehumanisation, exhibited in Crusoe, which simultaneously de-humanized the English “master,” robbing him of his “true” selfhood as a compassionate human being capable of empathy (thus, narcissism). McInelly argues that once Crusoe masters himself, he can then master the Other–i.e., the character Friday. I argue that if he had truly mastered himself, he would not have needed to “master”–or “(re)define Friday,” as McInelly mildly describes the dehumanization employed by English colonialists to justify slavery by resolving the cognitive dissonance that resulted from its incongruency with Protestant beliefs.

The following paragraphs contain examples of the various ways in which McInelly conflates the terms “individual,” “enlarged sense of self,” “filled with self importance,” “narcissism,” “master” and “selfhood.” But first:

Key definitions, courtesy of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED):

Narcissism

Generally: “Excessive self-love or vanity; self-admiration, self-centeredness.”

In the discipline of psychology, narcissism takes on a more specific meaning: “The condition of gaining emotional or erotic gratification from self-contemplation, sometimes regarded as a stage in the normal psychological development of children which may be reverted to in adults during mental illness.”

Selfhood

“The quality by virtue of which one is oneself; personal individuality.”

Interestingly, the OED dates the first instance of this term in the English language to 1649, thirty years after the publication of the novel Robinson Crusoe.

The Alchemist’s “definition” of Narcissus

The Alchemist picked up a book that someone in the caravan had brought. Leafing through the pages, he found a story about Narcissus.
The Alchemist knew the legend of Narcissus, a youth who daily knelt beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty. He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and drowned.
At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was called the narcissus.
But this was not how the author of the book ended the story. He said that when Narcissus died, the Goddesses of the Forest appeared and found the lake, which had been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.
“Why do you weep?” the Goddesses asked.
“I weep for Narcissus,” the lake replied.
“Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus,” they said, “for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand.”
“But….. was Narcissus beautiful?” the lake asked.
“Who better than you to know that?” the Goddesses said in wonder, “After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!”
The lake was silent for some time. Finally it said:
“I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.”
“What a lovely story,” the Alchemist thought.

Uses/conflations of “individual,” “enlarged sense of self,” “filled with self importance,” “narcissism,” “master” and “selfhood” in “Expanding Empires, Expanding Selves: Colonialism, the Novel, and Robinson Crusoe”

Crusoe as Individual

“I do not want to suggest that imperialism gave rise to the novel; rather, imperialism contributed significantly to the construction of the focal point of the novel’s attention, namely, the individual (British) subject” (20).

Crusoe as Enlarged Sense of Self

“Such an enlarged sense of self was crucial to obtaining and maintaining the Empire. In this sense, the novel and imperialism have a reciprocal relationship, the rise of each paralleling and reinforcing the other” (20).

Crusoe as Ego, Master of Self and Others

“Spatially, Robinson Crusoe illustrates that the vastness of the globe can … a corresponding enlargement, rather than the shrinking, of the venturing self and can produce close self-reflection of a kind not easy to achieve in a ‘civilized’ society. … Psychologically, Robinson Crusoe shows that relations with an alien Other can hone an ego that can master both its own selfhood and the destiny of others” (2).

Crusoe as Filled-with-Self-Importance

“Crusoe, by the end of his adventures, is filled with a sense of his own self-importance. … [he becomes] a character who sees himself and his experiences as being of immense consequence; in Robinson Crusoe we get, perhaps for the first time in English prose fiction, a work that asserts the primacy of the individual human subject.”

Crusoe as Narcissist

“[Crusoe] becomes a narcissistic, inward-gazing character” (17).

Crusoe as Narcissus

“Crusoe, in venturing out into the world, discovers perhaps the most essential element of his self-image, namely, a mirror, someone to reflect a self-validating image of himself” (17).  

Crusoe as Dehumanizer/Enslaver

Naming him Friday is a power grab over his old, former self, in which Crusoe re-defines him as a human being. McInelly says, “Crusoe’s desire for a companion/servant is simultaneously another manifestation of his narcissism. In (re)creating Friday, Crusoe actually prolongs his isolation on the island: Friday speaks Crusoe’s words and imitates his actions; he is a mere extension of Crusoe himself. In this regard, Friday is not unlike Crusoe’s pet parrot” (16).

Crusoe as Colonialist via Mastery/Selfhood

“Ultimately, Crusoe’s images of himself and his culture are, as I have shown, essentially projections onto a complex and threatening reality. In mastering his own selfhood, Crusoe simultaneously masters his environment and (re)creates a world to his liking–a decisively colonial act” (19).

The Boundary between Power and Strength: Applying the Eastern Tao Te Ching to the Western Robinson Crusoe

What if he, and by “extension” Great Britain, were to become the true master of his interior world, rather than “projecting,” (in the psychological sense of the word) his dysfunction to the outward world?

Not dominance.

The Tao te Ching, written 2,119 years before Robinson Crusoe’s 1719 publication (in 400BC) –states: “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.”

In this legendary treatise on leadership versus subjugation, “true power” results from self-mastery; “mastering others” equates to mere “strength.” Strength, then, operates in the external world; power, from within. If expansion is the outward manifestation of an inner state, that inner state would not be “true power,” and Crusoe/England, due to the compulsion to subjugate others and fear cannibalism, merely exerts strength. Thus, McInelly’s reading that Crusoe’s “self mastery” precedes his mastery of his environment conflates power with strength–a reverse existentialism. 

To master, and rely exclusively upon one’s own self, it is necessary to draw boundaries between yourself and others–not to dominate or colonialize, or become a manipulative “master” of your surroundings/others. It is true that once you master yourself, you author your own environment; however, it is also true that slavery, colonialism and the swallowing-up of other cultures elevates self-mastery to a dangerous level: narcissism, or “expanded” selfhood outside the boundaries of oneself, one’s nation, encroaching on other humans, subjugating them and becoming what you feared: a cannibal. While the colonialism did not result in the English’s literal eating of the Others it encountered, the expanding sense of Englishness does, in fact, swallow up the cultures of those original inhabitants. 

In order to accurately describe Crusoe and the colonialist behaviors of slavery and dehumanization that it showcases, correct terminology and thus proper boundaries between self, narcissim, mastery, reflection, etc., would not only benefit our understanding of  “Expanding Empires, Expanding Selves: Colonialism, the Novel, and Robinson Crusoe”; a closer examination of the intricate relationship between the expansion of the self, and narcissism, and how both served to operate within this time period and within this novel for those who were enslaved by/in it.