Narcissism and Its Discontents

"Narcissism and Its Discontents challenges the received wisdom that narcissism is only destructive of good social relations. By building on insights from psychoanalysis and critical theory it puts forward a theorisation of narcissistic sociability which redeems Narcissus from his position as the subject of negative critique. Following a close engagement with Sigmund Freud's 1914 paper 'On Narcissism: An Introduction', two further critical moments are considered: first, the mobilisation of narcissism in Anglo-American cultural discourse of the 1970s to 1990s where the term functioned as a descriptor for cultural malaise; and second, the discursive shift from narcissism to melancholia associated with more contemporary critical theory. This book pays particular attention to the paradoxical relation between the narcissist and the social world, identifying in Narcissus a figure whose turning away extends a call to others, and who finds in the vulnerabilities of the self the makings of the social scene"--

List of contents

Introduction 1. On the Introduction of Narcissism to Psychoanalytic Theory: 1914 and its Consequences 2. Socialising Narcissus via the Case of 'Little Hans' 3. Sociology 1: On the Narcissism of Nostalgia 4. Sociology 2: Cultural Narcissism, Some Examples from Anglo-American Sociology 5. 'Exceptional' Woman and Exemplary Sociability: The Figure of the Narquette 6. From Narcissism to Melancholia, and Back Again...

About the author

Julie Walsh is an Institute of Advanced Study Global Research Fellow in the department of Sociology, University of Warwick, UK.

Product details

• Authors: J Walsh, J. Walsh, Judy Walsh, Julie Walsh
• Publisher: Palgrave UK
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 27.11.2014
• EAN: 9781137333438
• ISBN: 978-1-137-33343-8
• No. of pages: 190
• Series: Studies in the Psychosocial; Studies in the Psychosocial
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Psychology > Theoretical psychology; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; B, Psychoanalysis, Culture, Sociology, Sociology of Culture, Medical counselling, personality, Psychotherapy, Clinical psychology, Social Psychology, Psychology: the self, ego, identity, personality, Counseling, Sociology, general, Personality and Social Psychology, Personality and Differential Psychology, Psychotherapy and Counseling, Analytical & Jungian psychology, Counseling Psychology, Palgrave Social Sciences Collection, Social groups: religious groups & communities, Psychoanalytical & Freudian psychology