The discussion of "negative narcissism" is another one of the several examples Butler provides that possesses a very contradictory nature. Negative narcissism deals with the counteractive effect of "regarding oneself as excrement." It is this negative experience that creates a disparity from actually identifying with the excrement. Therefore, a mediator, like a priest, is needed where "everything that the abject consciousness offers, that is, all of its externalizations, including desire, work, and excrement, are to be construed as offerings, as paying penance" (51).