Narcissism: A theoretical overview and brief application to group therapy

Abstract

Exhibitionism and voyeurism, which are intrinsic to group life, evoke intense anxiety under circumstances of group demonstrations. The anxiety will be characterized by maneuvers designed to deal with the implied threat of narcissistic injury and vulnerability. If we define narcissism as Robert Stolorow (1975) does, functionally, as all psychic activity designed to maintain the structural cohesiveness, temporal stability, and positive affective coloring of the selfrepresentation, we have at our command a dynamic view of narcissism rather than a descriptive one. Within Stolorow's functional definition, there appear to be three levels of activity characterized as narcissistic. They would be the maintenance of self-esteem, maintenance of self-cohesion, and lastly the maintenance of ego functions. These three levels of narcissistic activity are in descending order of psychic health. For the neurotic, self-esteem is the primary issue, for the borderline or narcissistic patient maintenance of self-cohesion is the primary issue, and for the lowest functioning borderline or psychotic, maintenance of ego functions is the primary issue. All three,- of course, are issues for all people at different times, but the issue of critical importance for each is as outlined above. For the neurotic, then, it is likely that he can display knowledge, tact, humor, wisdom, the ability to participate actively and freely and that he can have a feeling of enhanced self-esteem associated with participating in teaching and learning situations. The neurotic has