Narcissistic process

A chemical reaction in which the reactant is converted into its mirror image, hence the name alluding to the self-admiring nature of the mythic Narcissus. In a narcissistic process, a chiral reactant can be converted into its enantiomer. Racemases catalyze the most obvious narcissistic biochemical reactions. Another example of a narcissistic reaction is degenerate rearrangement. 

Freud correctly assumed that the failure of self-reflection in dreams that results in our delusional belief that we are awake, can fly, or survive surely deadly falls from vertiginous heights was akin to psychosis. As such we accurately regard it as primary process thinking, which is by definition narcissistic, omnipotent, and uncritical. But why does it have this character And by what mechanisms Certainly not to defend consciousness from invasion (because consciousness is invaded by primary processes in this case ). It seems far more likely that this failure to test reality is the outcome of an organic deficit related to two other deficit conditions of dreaming, the disorientation that creates bizarreness and the amnesia that creates dream forgetting. 

The directions of transition moments in every chromophore are dictated by molecular symmetry. For the cis tautomers of porphycene ( 2 point group), only three mutually orthogonal transition moment directions are allowed. On the other hand, the trans form is of 2 symmetry and, therefore, any direction in the molecular plane is possible, as well as the direction perpendicular to the plane. The determination of transition moment directions in such low symmetry molecules is not an easy task. However, in the case of narcissistic type of reactions exemplified by trans-trans conversion in 1, one can take advantage of an additional symmetry element introduced by the tautomerization process. Double hydrogen transfer converts the molecule into its image, with the horizontal and vertical mirror symmetry planes perpendicular to the molecular plane (Fig. 8.13). Thus, tautomerization results in the rotation of each in-plane transition moment direction. The angle of rotation is twice the value of the angle formed by a particular transition moment with the horizontal (or vertical) in-plane axis. It can be shown [80] that, for a fast excited state process, which results in equal population of both trans tautomers, the measured fluorescence anisotropy r will be expressed by the formula ... 

Just as the carbocyclic Diels-Alder reaction has its heterocyclic counterpart, so does the Cope rearrangement (Chapter 6). It will be recalled that in the archtypical Cope process (without heteroatoms), the narcissistic conversion of 1,5-hexadiene into itself is observed (Equation 9.32). 

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