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Bo Sigrell is a teacher at the Swedish Psychoanalytic Society and Associate Professor at the Karolinska Institute, Psychotherapeutic Unit. He has been a well-known group analyst for many years and with this book, he also presents himself as a serious psychoanalyst. Not only does he describe the scientific aspects of narcissism, he also takes the reader on an exciting journey to the realm of the myths and the literature of narcissim, including comments on the narcissistic society.
In the myth of Narcissus, self-love leads to death. The gods punish Narcissus for his self-sufficiency by letting him fall in love with his own reflection in the water. Narcissus vainly seeks contact with his own reflection and finally fades away. The message of the myth is that we all have this possibility within us.
When describing narcissistic character traits in persons portrayed in literature, special reference is made to poets such as Miguel de Cervantes, Oscar Wilde, Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg and Stig Dagerman. As regards Dagerman, it seems to me that envy is underestimated as part of the death-drive in the suicidal process. Dagerman's narcissism made it impossible for him to tolerate other people's greater prosperity and success; his frustration became so unbearable that death was the only solution, the ultimate resignation.
The narcissistic society and the possible interaction between the individual and society are elucidated by theories presented by Christopher Lasch, Heinz Kohut and Thomas Ziehe. However, as stated by the author, it is difficult to translate clinical understanding of narcissistic disorders in the individual from psychoanalytic theories to hypotheses about narcissistic phenomena in society which are based on quite different data. The tendency of many psychoanalysts to apply psychoanalytic theory to the understanding of socio-cultural phenomena, such as war and ethnic conflicts, is far too ambitious and speculative. External reality represents more than the