Narcissism: The Therapist’s Friend

My article in the December 2021 issue of Therapy Today explores how narcissism seems to have become more a term of abuse rather than a useful therapeutic concept.

After considering some supposedly contemporary manifestations of “narcissism”, I explore the original reasons for Freud’s development of the concept, and the realms of mental life that it was originally intended to open up. Three short case histories are provided to suggest the sheer variety of presentations that can have a bearing on the concept of narcissism. I suggest that its use simply as a label for certain behaviours, rather than as a concept universally applicable to understanding the human soul, is perhaps an inevitable consequence of continuing trends in psychology.

Narcissism: The Therapist’s Friend [PDF file, 300Kb]. © This article was first published in Therapy Today, the journal of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).