Exile is characterized by isolation and displacement which produce the kind of narcissistic masochism that resists all efforts

at amelioration, acculturation and community  In order to access the positive side of exile, one has to achieve independence and detachment by working through attachments, not by rejecting them  The sense of detachment and acceptance of loss result in transcending national or provincial limits  Western depictions of the Orient construct an inferior world, a place of backwardness, irrationality, and wildness