Narcissism

The term narcissism, which is derived from the Greek myth of Narcissus, refers to self-love. It was used first by Paul Nacke in 1899 to describe a case of male autoerotic perversion in which an individual treated his own body as one might treat the body of a sexual partner.

DEFINITIONS BY FREUD AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

Freud first used the term in correspondence with Wilhelm Fleiss, also in 1899. In the course of his career Freud used the word to describe four different but related phenomena: narcissism as sexual perversion; narcissism as a stage of development between the autoerotic stage and the stage of object love; narcissism as a libidinal cathexis (or love of self) of the ego or, as Freud described it in Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905, p. 218), "the great reservoir from which object-cathexis are sent out and into which they are withdrawn once more"; and narcissism as object choice, either anaclitic object choice in which the person loves someone like herself or himself, or attachment object choice, in which the person loves a strong and comforting person. In On Narcissism (1914) Freud also distinguished primary narcissism, the libidinal cathexis of the ego, from secondary narcissism, the cathexis of lost objects.

Freud's contemporaries further elaborated the meanings and understanding of narcissism. Sandor Ferenczi (1909) described a child's desire to rid itself of unpleasant affects by excluding objects from its perceptions as a form of narcissism. Karl Abraham (1924) wrote about the symptomatology of melancholia as being either positive narcissism, a self-love, or negative narcissism, a self-hate.

LATER DEFINITIONS

Later work on narcissism was done by Rosenfeld (1965), who drew attention to destructive narcissism related to the death instinct in contrast to the libidinal aspect of narcissism. In The Analysis of the Self, Heinz Kohut (1971) described narcissism as the cathexis of self-representations, not of the ego. He defined narcissism as agency of the personality responsible for factors in relationships. Kohut described three forms of narcissistic transferences, or relating: a need to experience mirroring and acceptance (a mirroring transference), the need to experience merger with greatness and strength (an idealized transference), and the need to experience an alikeness with another person (a twinship transference). The self-psychology he developed from his understanding of narcissism reflected an evolution of psychoanalytic theory from an ego psychology to a psychology of the self. Thus, in psychoanalytic literature, narcissism came to be applied to many things: sexual perversion, a developmental stage in a line of development, a type of libido or its object, a type or mode of object choice, a mode of relating to the environment, an attitude, self-esteem, and a personality type.

In current literature narcissism typically is used to describe the vicissitudes of self-esteem. Otto Kernberg described narcissistic patients as individuals with "an unusual degree of self-reference in their interactions with other people, a great need to be loved and admired by others, and a curious apparent contradiction between a very inflated concept of themselves, and an inordinate need for tribute from others" (Kernberg 1967, p. 655). These patients exhibit a sense of entitlement and fantasies of omniscience, omnipotence, and perfection. Affects range from elation to disappointment, anger, and narcissistic rage. Kernberg (1975) distinguished normal narcissism from pathological narcissism; the former depends on the structural integrity of the self, a balance between libidinal and aggressive drives, a harmony between the ego and superego, and a capacity to receive gratification from external objects. Normal narcissism leads to a balanced self-regard, realistic goals, and the capacity for deep and involved relationships. Pathological narcissism is seen in primitive demands on the self (such as extreme grandiosity in dress and behavior), inordinate dependence on others, and poor object relations. It also manifests itself in a sense of entitlement, a need for constant pursuit of perfection, and an impaired capacity for concern for and love of others.

GENDER IDENTITY, SHAME, AND MELANCHOLIA

Richard Green and John Money (1965) first used the term gender identity to describe a person's relative sense of his or her masculine or feminine identity. Precursors to that term were body ego, body image, and sexual identity. Robert Stoller (1974), a psychoanalyst, distinguished between the psychological and biological dimensions of sex. He used the term gender identity to describe socially constructed experiences of masculinity and femininity from sex, the biologically determined traits of maleness and femaleness. Stoller also made a distinction between gender identity, a person's sense of masculinity or femininity, and core gender identity, a mostly stable sense of maleness or femaleness that typically is consolidated by the second year of life. In contrast to Freud's belief that primary identification is masculine, Stoller believed that both boys and girls begin with a female core gender identity and that it is learned nonconflictually, that is by identifying, or being like the mother, through identification. He believed that a failure to interrupt the maternal symbiosis with preoedipal boys results in gender identity disorders.

John O'Leary and Fred Wright (1986) suggested that shame is the principal affect in narcissistic behavior, narcissism is a defense against shame, and the way shame is manifested is different in men and women. They described narcissistic men using grandiosity to bypass shame (a scared man may act fearless), whereas narcissistic women are more conscious and sensitive to shame experiences.

Other studies suggest women are more likely to experience shame, whereas men are more likely to exhibit hostility. Arthur Heiserman and Harold Cook (1998) also found gender differences in shame propensity, with women being more shame-prone than men. They also suggested that their findings were consistent with other literature in stating that women's narcissistic pathology is linked to idealization needs (the idealized transference, being like someone who is greatly admired), whereas men's narcissistic pathology is linked to mirroring needs (the mirror transference, needing love and acceptance). Narcissistic men appear to be more prone to hostility, and narcissistic women to be more prone to depression.

Judith Butler (1995) suggested that in melancholia there is incorporation of the lost object, as Freud described, but went on to establish a relationship between that incorporation and the formation of a bodily ego, or identity. Butler argued that under the societal demands of compulsory heterosexuality, individuals have to give up attachments to same-sexed objects and that this results in melancholia and gendered identifications to the bodily ego. These are losses attributable to the societal pressures against of homosexual love, resulting in melancholic identifications.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abraham, Karl. 1924. A Short History of the Development of the Libido, Viewed in the Light of Mental Disorders, trans. Douglas Bryan and Alix Strachey. London: Hogarth Press.

Butler, Judith. 1995. "Melancholy Gender—Refused Identification." Psychoanalytic Dialogues 5: 165-180.

Ferenczi, Sandor. 1909. Introjection and Transference. London: Hogarth Press.

Freud, Sigmund. 1905. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, trans. James Strachney. Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. London: Hogarth Press.

Freud, Sigmund. 1914. On Narcissism: An Introduction, trans. James Strachney. Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. London: Hogarth Press.

Green, Richard, and John Money, eds. 1969. Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Heiserman, Arthur, and Harold Cook. 1998. "Narcissism, Affect, and Gender." Psychoanalytic Psychology 15: 74-92.

Kernberg, Otto. 1967. "Borderline Personality Organization." Journal of the American Psycholanalytic Association 15: 641-685.

Kernberg, Otto J. 1975. Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism. New York: J. Aronson.

Kohut, Heinz. 1971. The Analysis of the Self: A Systematic Approach to the Psychoanalytic Treatment of Narcissistic Personality Disorders. New York: International Universities Press.

O'Leary, John, and Fred Wright. 1986. "Shame and Gender Issues in Pathological Narcissism." Psychoanalytic Psychology 3: 327-339.

Rusenfeld, Heber. 1965. Psychotic States: A Psycho-Anaytical Approach. New York: International Universities Press.

Stoller, Robert. 1974. Sex and Gender. New York: J. Aronson.

                                           Michael R. Bieber