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In Part I (pp. 3-34) I presented a critical review of Freud's writings on narcissism. Keeping that discussion in mind and considering several contemporary studies on narcissism — most especially those by Kernberg (1975), Kohut (1971, 1977), Lacan (1966), and Grunberger (1971) —I shall now propose a structural definition of narcissism. By a structural definition, I mean a definition in which narcissism is not reduced to a type of pathology, to a personality character, or to a specific stage of individual development, but rather is conceived as a fundamental position of any desiring subject, i.e., as a basic constituent in the formation of what I call the “ego” (Ich)..1 I shall not, however, overlook the place of this concept of narcissism with regard to psychopathology and developmental theory, and, in particular,