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After elucidating the clinical theory of the self in 1966 and in The Analysis of the Self (1971), Kohut (1972) defined another clinical entity—narcissistic rage—and placed it into the context of the newly developed theory.
Kohut calls our attention to a common, everyday phenomenon—the thirst for revenge. How well we all know it. Its tragic consequences have inspired some of the most gripping literature of our civilization. The paradigm might well be Captain Ahab in Melville's Moby Dick, as Kohut notes at the beginning of his paper on narcissistic rage. But Medea's revenge, too, can hardly be equalled for horror, nor Richard III for villainy; and the setting for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is also one of vengeance.
Yet, there is more to the clinical description. The thirst for revenge is not only the unrelenting need to right a wrong, it is also reactive. It is provoked by some injury to self-esteem—a narcissistic injury such as contempt, ridicule, or conspicuous defeat, or events which in any case are experienced as such by the injured party. Ahab, of course, was in relentless pursuit of the whale that had taken his leg. Medea had been rejected by Jason after having done everything possible to enhance his power and ambitions. And Richard III was
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,Deformed, unfinished, sent before my timeInto this breathing world, scarse halfe made up,And that so lamely and unfashionableThat dogs bark at me, as I halt by them.