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Neville Symington traces the origin of the ten chapters that form this concise book in his preface. Each chapter is based on a lecture in a series given at the Sydney Institute of Psychoanalysis. Before that, he explains, this exploration of narcissism arose out of his work on psychoanalysis and religion. Convinced that narcissism provides a link between these two, Symington says that he recognized that he did not know what narcissism was. He set himself the daily task of thinking about it for twenty minutes and from his notes grew the ten lectures and ultimately this book.
The word ‘narcissism’ has become a unit of currency in the meta-language of Western culture. Each generation and group within the depth psychologies has sought to locate its own system of meaning in the term. At some level this always implies a reappraisal of the Narcissus myth which itself poses a truly seminal existential statement. Throughout this book the flavour of Symington's original private musings brings a directness which allows the reader a sense of being a privileged observer of this his own reappraisal. Writing from within that ill-defined but well recognized and respected perspective of the British Independent School, Symington draws on a range of material from literature, mythology and psychoanalytic writings to help him with his exercise. Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina is used repeatedly, especially in the earlier chapters. As a synopsis is provided in the introduction, it is not essential to be familiar with the book to be able to follow Symington's use of the three couples portrayed by Tolstoy as illustrations of three different degrees of narcissistic functioning. Moving from the myth as told by Robert Graves with the assistance of a number of interesting references, he arrives in the realm of his own clinical and personal experience. The focus of attention moves around, but the quest for the essential nature and origin of pathological narcissism is kept within view.
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