Abstract

To pursue the psychological and social relations of narcissism is to enter a swamp. However, that swamp happens to be a real part of the world. Consider some of its dimensions:

—Narcissism is an aspect of personal life without which human existence would not be thinkable. One treads softly about the word “normal” but in this case we must assume that narcissism, as the location of desire in the self, is ubiquitous, and indeed transhistorical. Moreover, when we talk of a “healthy narcissism,” we are not positing an idle or meaningless value.

—An exaggerated narcissism is an aspect of real, if difficult to conceptualize, disorders.