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A LOOK AT NARCISSISM THROUGH PROFESSOR HIGGINS IN PYGMALION
Author(s) -
Plant David
Publication year - 2012
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.1752-0118.2011.01264.x
Subject(s) - narcissism , loneliness , psychology , psychoanalysis , george (robot) , order (exchange) , social psychology , art history , art , economics , finance
Drawing upon Professor Higgins in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion as a template, and making use of clinical material, I will reflect upon the painful, poignant and self‐inflicted inner loneliness of the narcissistic individual. In order to master early trauma, the narcissistic person constructs an outwardly substantial self in which he seeks to control others and the way he is perceived by others. In so doing he renounces the more emotionally vulnerable parts of himself, the very parts he needs in order to develop a more authentic self and emotionally connect with others. Sometimes a crack appears in his defensive narcissistic structure with the possibility of something more life‐enhancing emerging.