Baumrind's authoritative, permissive, and authoritarian parenting styles were analyzed within the context of Kohut's psychology of the self. College student perceptions of their parents were correlated with measures of self-functioning in order to test the hypotheses that perceived parental authoritativeness would be associated with less narcissistic maladjustment, that permissiveness would be associated with immature grandiosity, and that authoritarianism would correlate with inadequate idealization. All three suggestions received empirical support. In addition, authoritarianism seemed to be associated with less immature grandiosity, and parenting characteristics of the mother were more strongly correlated with self-development than were those of the father.