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Using the theories of Freud, Kernberg, Kohut and even the DSM-III, Jeffrey Berman here charts the history of narcissism as depicted in Ovid's original telling of the Narcissus myth in his Metamorphosis and in seven 19th and 20th century novels (Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Jude the Obscure, Sons and Lovers, and Mrs. Dalloway).
Berman is best as an intellectual historian, sifting through the many studies written on narcissism in the last century—by psychoanalysts, literary historians, and philosophers—and bringing some order and light to a subject that is rife with controversy and imprecision. As psychoanalysis has evolved, so has our perspective on narcissism, for in Berman's opinion the myth of Narcissus ranks second only to Oedipus Rex in shaping psychoanalytic theory. He convincingly demonstrates this by applying the recent interest in preoedipal issues to both Ovid's myth and the novels, revealing unexplored layers lying latent all these years in texts we thought we knew so well. By repeatedly reminding us of competing explanatory theories—whether it's Freud's withdrawn libido, Kern-berg's projection of inner rage, or Kohut's fixated primitive self—and how each perspective illuminates something unique, Berman resists reductionism and encourages us to think that progress is being made.
Even more gladdening, Berman has kept current on research: noting, for instance, that modern infant research has disproved Freud's paralleling of adult pathology and infantile behavior (the narcissism of an infant is not an illness and does not necessarily lead to illness later on), Berman demonstrates that Charcot's dictum, which Freud was fond of quoting—“Theory is good, but it doesn't prevent things from existing”—is still sound advice. Thus, Freud's misreading of women as equivalent to narcissistic children is ably