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DESTRUCTIVE NARCISSISM AND THE OBLITERATION OF SUBJECT‐OBJECT SEPARATION: VARIOUS MANIFESTATIONS OF AN UNDERLYING PSYCHODYNAMIC CONFIGURATION
Author(s) -
Seidler Günter H.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0118.1999.tb00454.x
Subject(s) - narcissism , psychology , psychodynamics , plea , object (grammar) , consciousness , reciprocity (cultural anthropology) , context (archaeology) , psychic , personality , subject (documents) , psychoanalysis , variety (cybernetics) , social psychology , medicine , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , alternative medicine , pathology , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , library science , political science , computer science , law , biology
The article describes the specific psychodynamics of ‘destructive narcissism’, a configuration which in its effects, if not in its intentions, can truly be said to be ‘destructive’. The two most widely used diagnostic manuals (ICD‐10 and DSM‐IV) correctly deny it the status of an illness or personality disorder in its own right, as it is more appropriately described as a fundamental anthropological dimension. As such it is similar in status to consciousness, bipersonal reciprocity or self‐referentiality. Its aim is the obliteration of the subject‐object relation. Destructive narcissism finds expression in a variety of manifestations differing according to context. They include some psychic symptoms and disorders. The article is also a plea for the application of psychoanalysis (enriched by a phenomenological perspective) to the discussion of anthropological issues.