The elevators in the hospital I am currently at all have reflective back walls (presumably to make them seem larger (although how effective this is I’m not sure, given that while it creates the illusion of more space in the elevator, it also creates more illusionary people to fill that space)), and I have decided that this not a good thing, as it does far too much to encourage my latent narcisism (for those who are not familiar with Narcisism, it comes from the name of a guy called Narcissus, who was a mythical greek guy who fell in love with his own reflection in a river).
Elevators are generally psychologically discomforting anyway, as there’s always that (apparently widely socially held) urge to stand as far from other people as the confined space will allow, so as to avoid personal space invasion, and to aviod personal eye contact with the other strangers whose personal space you are being forced to invade by the nature of the situation. In this situation the mirrored wall provides a socially comfortable, but psychologically questionable alternative – stand next to the wall and look at yourself instead, which is exactly what I keep on catching myself doing. Perhaps it’s not as bad as I think it is…