Attachment Anxiety and Covert Narcissistic Pangs as Reflected in Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie

Abstract

This paper aims to provide an interdisciplinary space for fruitful debate concerning psychoanalytical representations of attachment anxiety and the fear of abandonment of a covert narcissist within the ambit of narcissism, and its implications in artistic, literary, and health discourses. Researchers in psychiatric, clinical, developmental, personality, and social psychology are interested in the issue of narcissism since its resurgence has hit the world on a pandemic scale in the last few years. Despite the extensive research on the construct of narcissism conducted so far, one of its under-represented clinical subtypes, "covert narcissism," which is intrinsically intertwined with the fear of abandonment and attachment anxiety (Cramer, 2019) remains largely unexplored as opposed to its counterpart, grandiose narcissism. Extending this hypothesis, the primary objective of the current scholarly investigation is to examine the correlations underlying the maladaptive attachment anxiety and fear of abandonment that Amanda Wingfield, the female protagonist of Tennessee Williams's most autobiographical play, The Glass Menagerie, wrestles with in her interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships. The study's secondary purpose is to further scrutinize and unearth a slew of unconscious yet toxic expressions of covert narcissism that Amanda embodies in her machinations to remain in her 'secure base'.