The question of narcissism continues to occupy a central place in psychoanalytic thinking and practice. In Ovid's telling of the myth, the trauma for Narcissus is his failure to see beyond what is in front of his eyes, namely his idealised self. The youth eventually dies, ecstatically trapped within his enclosed world of oneness. Symington's book was inspired by a determination to engage in depth with this important theme, and he leads us into an investigation that questions the nature of our identity and the possibility of genuinely relating to ourselves and others. His work is the result of a series of lectures given at the Sydney Institute for Psychoanalysis, and the author's writing therefore has a directness of expression which successfully engages the reader.

Narcissism is important to Symington for two reasons. He sees it as a condition that lies at the root of all mental psychopathology and as a problem that has to be faced in normal human development.