Narcissism – an adolescent disorder?

Abstract

This paper argues that the adolescent process needs to be accorded its own particularity of reference, especially where narcissism is concerned. The paper draws on literary and clinical examples to describe what is termed the ‘adolescent organisation’. In many ways, this organisation reflects post-Kleinian theory of what constitutes narcissistic pathology. Yet the essential fluidity of the organisation, its culture of experiment and self-exploration, its rootedness in transition and, despite all the usually glaring and obvious signs to the contrary, its developmental potential, tell a different story.