Introduction

Abstract

Freud (1914) understood that the aim of narcissistic object choice is to be loved; the aim is to raise one’s self-regard. Narcissistic object relations serve to maintain self-regard or self-esteem. Self-esteem can be defined simply as “confident conviction of being lovable” (Storr, 1968, p. 77). Narcissism, in turn, can be defined as a need — indeed an automatic tendency that is expressed in behaviour and cognition — to maintain self-esteem, that is, to be loved and to be lovable, to be approved and to be approvable, and to be generally accepted by and thus to feel connected to one’s social surround. It is interesting to realize how much of human personality, social behaviour, social structure, and psychopathology are centred on this need to maintain self-esteem, even though the central importance of narcissism is often not immediately apparent. Narcissism, as a fundamental behavioural tendency, is often expressed in highly abstract forms; and much of the social complexity around us becomes translucent when considered in this way, as this book aims to show. ‘Narcissistic’ behaviour strategies unfolding in a particular social and cultural context not only aim to optimize the level of positive attention we can gather from fellow humans but also, more generally, to control self-referential patterns reflective of our acceptance by and safety within our social surround; and they do so on different levels of abstraction.