Narcissism is a term that originated with Narcissus in Greek mythology who fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool of water. Currently it is used to describe a person characterized by egotism, vanity, pride, or selfishness. Narcissism has included particular meanings in specific fields:
- A concept in psychoanalytic theory, introduced in Sigmund Freud's On Narcissism
- An Axis II disorder, Narcissistic personality disorder, in DSM-IV
- A social or cultural problem
- A factor in trait theory used in some self-report inventories of personality such as the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory
Except in the sense of primary narcissism or healthy self-love, narcissism is usually considered a problem in a person or group's relationships with self and others.
Read more about Narcissism: History, Traits and Signs, Narcissism and Popular Culture, See Also
Famous quotes containing the word narcissism:
“Our ego ideal is precious to us because it repairs a loss of our earlier childhood, the loss of our image of self as perfect and whole, the loss of a major portion of our infantile, limitless, ain’t-I-wonderful narcissism which we had to give up in the face of compelling reality. Modified and reshaped into ethical goals and moral standards and a vision of what at our finest we might be, our dream of perfection lives on—our lost narcissism lives on—in our ego ideal.”
—Judith Viorst (20th century)