ABSTRACT
Plunging in pursuit of his beautiful image turned Narcissus into a ready symbol of the perils of self-absorption. Joe Noshpitz, by contrast, plunged into a life marked by generosity and yearnings to live up to ideals and standards of decency and fairness, a yearning rooted in a keen sensitivity to the plight of others. His was a life that provides a ready model of the “healthy narcissism” he explores in this chapter, as it is shaped during the crucial formative period of the grade school years.
