Shame: The Underside of Narcissism

by Andrew P. Morrison

Book Overview

Morrison provides a critical history of analytic and psychiatric attempts to make sense of shame, beginning with Freud and culminating in Kohut's understanding of shame in terms of narcissistic phenomena. The clinical section of the book clarifies both the theoretical status and treatment implications of shame in relation to narcissistic personality disorder, neurosis and higher-level character pathology, and manic-depressive illness.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0881630829
• ISBN13: 9780881630824
• Release Date: October 1989
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Basic Text on the Subject

This is a complete psychoanalytic exploration of the problem of shame by one of the chief experts in the field. This text can be a basic introduction or a thorough review, and as such there is no better.

Shame on You

Shame and guilt - often experienced during childhood and early adolescence - are the two relentless drivers of the veering car of pathological narcissism. Narcissistic Shame is the experience of a humiliating Grandiosity Gap (the tormenting abyss between the narcissist's reality and his grandiose fantasies). Subjectively it is experienced as a pervasive feeling of worthlessness (the regulation of self-worth lies at the crux of pathological narcissism), "invisibleness" and ridiculousness. The patient feels pathetic and foolish, deserving of mockery and humiliation. Narcissists adopt all kinds of defences to counter Narcissistic Shame. They develop addictive or impulsive behaviours. They deny, withdraw, rage, engage in the compulsive pursuit of some kind of (unattainable, of course) perfection. They display haughtiness and exhibitionism and so on. All these defences are employed primitively (or are primitive, like splitting) and involve projective identification. This book is the best study there is of the incestuous relationship of narcissism and pernicious shame. Sam Vaknin, author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited".