Intergenerational Grief: Who's Mourning Whom?

There has been a steady interest in narcissistic personality disorders (NPD) in the last decade. Writing from different theoretical points of view, often with highly contrasting metapsychological perspectives, psychoanalysts have continued to define and refine our notions about this area of psychopathology I share Gorkin's (1984) belief that narcissistic personality disorders may be explored from a vantage point that has not been especially noted in the literature, that of the psychology of mourning Indeed narcissistic personality disorders occur in individuals whose pathology may be conceptualized, in part, as deriving from a pathological mourning process. As described by Kernberg (1975, 1976) they fail to negotiate the separation-individuation phase because they are unable to mourn the symbiotic tie to the mother, or more exactly, they cannot relinquish the imago of an ideal self, linked in dual unity with an ideal mother. The result is their tenacious maintenance of ideal self and object representations, and an inability to abandon these representations for more realistic ones that lead to the formation of adequate ego and superego structures.

The symptomatic picture of individuals with narcissistic personalities includes, although with some variations in emphasis, the following a) an unusual need for admiration and tribute from others; b) a susceptibility to bouts of anger, ranging from pique to rage; c) a lack of understanding of, and empathy for, the feelings of others, d) a propensity towards envying others; and e) occasional eruptions of disturbing feelings of profound worthlessness and emptiness