Shame, Narcissism, and Intersubjectivity

Andrew P. Morrison and Robert D. Stolorow

Beginning their article by defining narcissism as the yearning for uniqueness in the eyes of an idealized other, and a yearning to be the most important person to that other, Morrison and Stolorow endeavor to widen the understanding and definition of narcissism in the psychoanalytic context.

In following with Freud, the authors associate narcissism with infancy, pointing to the event of the infant's differentiation as an individual as the primary rupturing of this narcissism. The important point to take from this section of the article, however, is the authors' assertion that shame lies at the core of this derailment of the narcissistic experience.

The authors devote much of their chapter to a discussion of narcissism's path through the history of psychoanalysis, discussing not only Freud's views on the phenomenon but also Jung's, Adler's, and less well-known names.

With a discussion of two narcissistic states - feelings of worthlessness and smallness versus feelings of "expansive grandiosity," or egotistic versus dissociative, (Morrison's "dialectic of narcissism") the authors transition into a discussion of the "ideal self," and, by extension, the ego and the ego-ideal (67). Continuing their discussion of narcissism's history, the authors go on to further discuss the theories of other analysts', particularly the work of Helen Block Lewis (see earlier posts on her work) and her theory of bypassed shame.

The following half of the article is, if possible, more dense and confusing than the first. I need to do a closer reading, as at this point I cannot really effectively write it up!

The final section of the article is entitled "The Intersubjective Contexts of Shame," echoing the title.