Narcissism: Reflections on others' images of an elusive concept

British Journal of Psychotherapy, 1988

The author reviews Freud's (1914) seminal paper 'On narcissism: an introduction'. Freud's paper is briefly set in the historical context of the evolution of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic theories, and Freud's metapsychology up to the publication of his Narcissism paper is outlined. A detailed and comprehensive description of the content of the paper is given, accompanied by commentary on, and critical analysis of, Freud's ideas. Freud's applications of his ideas about narcissism in relation to homosexuality, hypochondria and psychosis are elucidated and discussed. The author concludes by considering some of the influences of Freud's ideas about narcissism on Kleinian and post-Kleinian developments in psychoanalytic theory.

British Journal of Psychotherapy, 1986

The specific purpose of this paper is to give a limited appraisal of Freud's account of narcissism, primarily as elaborated in 'On Narcissism: An Introduction' (Freud 1914). My main focus will be on narcissism as a feature of object choice so as to highlight the conceptual similarities and differences with subsequent papers on the concept of narcissism from the perspectives of Klein, Fairbairn and Kohut. The term narcissism was first introduced by Freud in 1910 to describe the object choice made by homosexuals.`They identify themselves with a woman and take themselves as their sexual object. That is to say, they proceed from a narcissistic basis, and look for a young man who resembles themselves and whom they may love as their mother loved them.' (Freud 1905). In 1914 he writes that the strongest reason which led him to adopt the hypothesis of narcissism was consideration of perverts and homosexuals who 'in their later choice of love objects ... have taken as a model not their mother but their own selves. They are plainly seeking themselves as a love-object, and are exhibiting a type of object choice which must be termed narcissistic'. (Freud 1914). He goes on to elaborate that according to the narcissistic type 'A person may love: (a) what he himself is (i.e. himself) (b) what he himself was (c) what he himself would like to be (d) someone who was once part of himself.' (Freud 1914, p. 90) The prevailing feature seems to be an assumption that the subject identifies with the mother and seeks to love aspects of himself in his subsequent object choices. This is contrasted with the anaclitic (attachment) type of object choice, according to which, 'A person may love: (a) the woman who feeds him (b) the man who protects him, and the succession of substitutes who take their place' (Freud 1914, p. 90). Both types are seen as ideal and Freud assumes that in reality both types are available to an individual though he may vary in his preference. As he says 'a human being has originally two sexual objects-himself and the woman who nurses him-and in doing so we are postulating a primary narcissism in everyone, which may in some cases manifest itself in a dominating fashion in his object choice' (Freud 1914, p. 88, my emphasis). The determining prototype of later object choices, both anaclitic and narcissistic, is viewed in terms of the initial prototype of the relationship with the feeding mother. In the anaclitic form the subject makes object choices on the model of the feeding mother which is extended to and influenced by the protective father and the consequent figures who come in their wake with the passage of time. The distinctive feature of the homosexual narcissistic object choice is the identification with the mother and through this 'a seeking of themselves as love objects'.

International Encyclopedia of Ethics (ed. Hugh LaFollette), 2019

Deriving from the myth of Narcissus, in which a beautiful youth falls in love with his own reflection, the concept of narcissism was given its first systematic treatment in Sigmund Freud's 1914 essay “On Narcissism.” Since Freud's account of narcissism remains the starting point for most subsequent discussions of the topic, this entry begins with a brief summary of Freud's views before moving on to consider some of the major questions that have consistently arisen in philosophical treatments of narcissism and self‐love. How ought we to draw the line between healthy self‐esteem and pathological narcissism? Given the apparently ubiquitous presence of “the dear self” (to use Kant's term) in human consciousness, what would it mean to cultivate a truly nonnarcissistic concern for others, and is such a thing possible – or even desirable?

The Psychoanalytic Review, 2019

In this article, our goal is to present some elements relatives to the history of appropriation of the myth of Narcissus by medical-psychiatric tradition, so trying to draw the origins of this important psychoanalytic concept. From a psychopathological point of view, the narcissistic phenomenon, defined initially as a particular form of fetish, began to be considered as a medical problem at the end of nineteenth century. The psychoanalytic appropriation of this notion was made in 1905, by Freud, with the introduction of the concept of autoerotism. The first psychoanalytical definition of narcissism itself, suggested by the Viennese psychoanalyst Isidor Sadger, was given in 1908.

Perspectives - Vol. 6, No. 1, 2000

NARCISSISM (n. sing.) A pattern of traits and behaviours which signify infatuation and obsession with one's self to the exclusion of all others and t gratification, dominance and ambition. Narcissism is named after the ancient Greek myth of Narcissus who was a handsome Greek youth who rejected the despera his cruelty, he was doomed to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. Unable to consummate his love, he pine name to this very day. WHAT IS NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder)? The Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) has been recognized as a seperate mental health disorder in the third edition of Its diagnostic criteria and their interpretation have undergone a major revision in the DSM III-R (1987) and were substanti ICD-10 basically contains identical language. An all-pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behaviour), need for admiration or adulation and lack of empathy, usu various contexts. Five (or more) of the following criteria must be met:

The Self as Muse: Narcissism and Creativity in the German Imagination, 2011

Abstract: Loving yourself is not a sin, but being obsessed with one‟s own happiness and letting others to suffer is „Narcissism‟. This disease is unique as the one who is suffering from narcissism may not realize that he is a „Narcissist‟ and in some cases a narcissist fails to cure his disease as he refuses to understand the suffering caused by him to others. A narcissist is dangerous to himself and the society. He can be cured if he discovers of what he is suffering with and realizes that only he can heal himself .i.e. „Narcissists are the cure to their own poison‟. Keywords: Character disorder, ego-strengthening, Ego State Therapy, false self, hypnosis, hypnotic age progression, narcissism, personality

British Journal of Psychotherapy, 1986

Kohut's exploration of narcissistic phenomena has had enormous impact on psychoanalytic thinking in the USA. Controversial though`Self Psychology' is, it has stimulated creative debate and a rethinking of many basic assumptions regarding development, the origins of pathology and the mode of action of psychoanalysis. Kohut's influence in Britain, by comparison, is almost negligible. Perhaps this is partly because Kohut -who died in 1981 -was writing against a background of classical analysis, Freudian and ego-psychological, which is rather different to that prevailing in Britain.