narciss-, narcis- +

Narcissism manifested as an attempt to dominate others and to regain or to maintain omnipotence by intellectual prowess.

1. A personality type showing excessive love or approval of himself or herself: The psychiatrist diagnosed Jerry as exhibiting characteristics of malignant narcissism or an exaggerated sense of personal admiration.
2. Antisocial behavior: Mary had difficulties on the playground at school because she exhibited a form of malignant narcissism which was aggressive towards those who did not admire and praise her.
3. Ego-syntonic aggression or sadism directed against others including inhumane or barbarous killing: The police were alarmed at the repeated discovery of mutilated corpses and focused their search on a person who was known to be possessed with malignant narcissism and had recently escaped from prison.

Narcissism manifested as a yearning to be pure and above normal human needs (which the narcissist finds shameful), and to be free of attachment to others.

A reference to or pertaining to Narcissus.

1. Excessive or neurotic admiration of oneself; self-love or self- admiration.
2. An abnormal interest in oneself; especially, in one's own body and sexual characteristics; self-love or self-admiration.
3. Sexual pleasure derived from observing one's own naked body.
4. In psychoanalysis, sexual self interest that is a normal characteristic of the phallic stage of psychosexual development, occurring as the infantile ego acquires a libido.

Narcissism in the adult is abnormal, representing fixation at this phallic stage of development or regression to it.

5. Etymology: from German Narzissismus, coined in 1899 by German psychiatrist Paul Näcke (1851-1913) in Die sexuellen Perversitäten, on a comparison first suggested in 1898 by Havelock Ellis, from Greek Narkissos, the name of a beautiful young man in mythology (Ovid, "Metamorphoses," iii.370) who fell in love with his own reflection in a spring and subsequently was turned into the flower now known as a narcissus.

There is an apparent disagreement as to who "coined" the term narcissism because according to Dr. Ernest Klein, the term narcissism, as used in psychology, came from German Narzissismus; coined by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), founder of psychoanalysis.

Someone who shows extreme love and admiration for herself or himself.

Selection of another person like one's own self as the object of love, friendship, or liking.

1. A disposition characterized by behavior and attitudes that indicate an abnormal love of one self.

A person with this disposition is self-centered and self-absorbed, is extremely unrealistic concerning attributes and goals, vacillates between over idealizing and devaluing others, and, in general, assumes that he or she is entitled to more than is reasonable in relationships with others.

2. A personality disorder with the basic characteristics of a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, hypersensitivity, and defective empathy, manifested in the following:

• Grandiosity, with a sense of self-importance.
• The subject views his or her problems as unique and understandable only by other special people.
• A need for constant attention and admiration.
• A sense of entitlement.

A psychiatric diagnosis characterized by an exaggerated sense of self-importance and uniqueness, an abnormal need for attention and admiration, preoccupation with grandiose fantasies concerning the self, and disturbances in interpersonal relationships, usually involving the exploitation of others and a lack of empathy for anyone else.

The American Psychiatric Association recently announced that it is considering lifting "narcissistic personality disorder"; along with four other personality disorders; from its highly influential Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

The current theory seems to be that narcissism is caused by very early influential deprivation, yet the clinical material tends to describe narcissists as unwilling rather than unable to change, and so the treating of narcissistic behaviors is more a volitional condition; that is, narcissism is termed a personality disorder, but it tends to be considered by some therapists as a character disorder.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder is considered to be a severe impairment when a person's self-centered or egotistical behavior results in:

• Staying in bed all day.
• Totally alienating or avoiding friends and family.
• Severe risk of harming oneself or others; such as, failing to maintain personal hygiene; persistent danger of suicide, abuse, or crime.