Concept
Negative narcissism
André Green's term for a narcissism governed by the death drive, which he set beside the life narcissism that strives for the unity of the ego. Instead of investing the ego it aims at its reduction towards zero, at the extinction of desire and of every tie to objects; clinically it appears as emptiness, a pull towards nothingness and withdrawal from relations.
Read more- Broader concept
- Narcissism
- Introduced by
- André Green
- Key works
- 2
- Related
- Death drive
introduced by
- André Green Green postulated a death narcissism, which he called negative narcissism, beside the life narcissism that seeks the unity of the ego: it aims at the ego's abolition, an aspiration to zero. The papers collected in his 1983 book develop it.
derives from
- Death drive Negative narcissism is Green's narcissism of the death drive: where life narcissism binds the ego into a unity, it pursues the ego's extinction.