The Greek myth of Narcissus isn't about vanity — it's about needing external validation to feel real
Most people think the Narcissus myth is just "guy falls in love with his own reflection, dies." But the actual detail that gets left out is more interesting: Narcissus wasn't punished for finding himself beautiful. He was punished by Nemesis specifically for rejecting everyone who tried to love him — including a nymph named Echo, who was cursed to only ever repeat other people's words back to them.
The parallel that stuck with me: Echo can only exist through repeating someone else, and Narcissus can only see himself through a reflection. Neither of them has an independent sense of self — they both need something external to confirm they exist at all.
That's basically the mechanism behind a lot of social comparison research (and honestly, a lot of how social media validation works). Made a short video connecting the myth to the actual psychology if anyone's interested: https://youtu.be/ae6cxqsEqck