The Narcissistic Pursuit Of Perfection

By Arnold Rothstein. New York: Int. Univ. Press, 1980, xii + 287 pp., $30.00.

To a great extent, the continuing debate about the nature and place of narcissistic phenomena in psychological normality and pathology will only be resolved by meticulous clinical and observational study. Among the unanswered questions are the following: What is the ontogeny of the mental representation of self and object? Is there an early mental state in which there is no differentiation of self and object? In what ways, if any, are the early mental organizations of self and object retained? Are early forms of awareness of self and object influential in later life? If so, in what ways? What, if any, are the psychological links between early representations of self and object and adult attitudes of grandiosity and idealization?

These questions are not likely to be settled until we have a systematic collection and examination of relevant analytic data from both child and adult analyses—a Hampstead Index of narcissistic phenomena. We also require more detailed information from infant and toddler observation. At present, both analytic information and data from infant and toddler observation are limited in both scope and quality, though they do allow some cautious statements about early developmental issues.

Proposed theories provide frameworks for the arrangement of data. In the present heated atmosphere about this subject, a book such as Rothstein's has a valued place; his ideas pose an alternative to the well-known concepts of Heinz Kohut and Otto Kernberg. Rothstein reviews much of the relevant literature, presents a new and interesting approach to the topic, and provides extended literary examples of narcissistic disturbances.

The first half of the book is a literature review and presentation of Rothstein's views. The second half includes eight case studies of representative types of narcissistic disorder drawn from Anna Karenina and a discussion of narcissism in the life c