A healthy self is one that is content with their life and who has a strong sense of identity, though the search for who you
are is never-ending. It is vital to stay in touch with the world and the others around you because in many ways it is these interactions that shape who you are and your outlook in life. How you relate to others can shape or break you.
But it is more difficult to find a place for my feelings, the feelings of the ethical subject. After all, are not my feelings irrelevant? Are not affective states fundamentally self-absorbing or distracting in a way that neglects the other? If it is vital for my ethics to address the other's feelings, does this not mean that feelings in general are an inescapable part of ethical subjectivity? If the other's feelings are necessary then it should mean that mine might be just as important as well.
Levinas’ philosophy relies on finding the good and how we relate and essentially doing the right thing to the so-called “Other”. In the case of the Other, just by looking at the face of another person, gives you a glimpse into their humility. He puts great emphasis on the face, each unique and what makes us ethical beings is recognizing it. The Other demands respect but it is
completely up to you whether or not you are going to take any action but that is what makes us
responsible. This relationship or even obligation you have towards the people around you is at the heart of a healthy self. You have got to realize that every little thing that you do will have an effect on not only you but others as well and vice versa. For instance, in the story of Echo and Narcissus, Narcissus who is this gorgeous man that Echo completely falls madly in love with, just brushes her off without a second thought. She eventually just faded away into nothing. Actions like this happen every day to everyone whether we realize it or not. What one person sees as completely insignificant can have an adverse effect on others and this is what Levinas is trying to say. Whether we like it or not we are in fact somewhat responsible on how we react to others. The other demands that you recognize it and without recognition, the other can be reduced into nothing. They won’t literally fade away, but that is how they would feel- empty as if they did not exist. So then is Narcissus responsible for Echo’s fate? He played a huge role in breaking her and didn’t even realize it. We as humans got to take into account the feelings of others. Our responses, our compassion is what makes us human is so important in developing relationships with others. Eventually Narcissus gets punished and ends up becoming completely infatuated with a reflection of himself. Though external forces played a role to his downfall in the story, it’s pretty much saying that complete self-absorption can inevitably lead to your own demise. You need other people to be there for you, to give you their opinions. Confining yourself into isolation just wouldn’t work out in the world. Take for instance Anorexia. Our world today is so full of the ideals- the perfect body, the perfect woman and etc that having a positive self-image about yourself is so incredibly hard to achieve. Anorexia eventually consumes the victim and reduces them to nothing and the role of the Other can be contrary in a way. It usually starts off with how you think others think of yourself and what you think the ideal image is. And yet slowly as the problem progresses, you becomes more narcissistic. All the person sees is a fat person staring back regardless of what others say or do and in many cases, the person gets so into their self-image that the disease completely consumes them, just like Narcissus. He dies of thirst, which is ironic because he was staring at a pool of water.The thing is recognizing yourself is a very hard task and when you are in search of that, the role that others play and how you react to the calling of the Other really influees a healthy state of being