noun
- inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity.
- Psychoanalysis. erotic gratification derived from admiration of one’s own physical or mental attributes, being a normal condition at the infantile level of personality development.
noun
- an exceptional interest in or admiration for oneself, esp one’s physical appearance
- sexual satisfaction derived from contemplation of one’s own physical or mental endowments
n.1905, from German Narzissismus, coined 1899 (in “Die sexuellen Perversitäten”), by German psychiatrist Paul Näcke (1851-1913), on a comparison suggested 1898 by Havelock Ellis, from Greek Narkissos, name of a beautiful youth in mythology (Ovid, “Metamorphoses,” iii.370) who fell in love with his own reflection in a spring and was turned to the flower narcissus (q.v.). Coleridge used the word in a letter from 1822. But already Krishna, enamoured of himself, had resolved to experience lust for his own self; he manifested his own Nature in the cow-herd girls and enjoyed them.” [Karapatri, “Lingopasana-rahasya,” Siddhanta, II, 1941-2] Sometimes erroneously as narcism. n.
- Excessive love or admiration of oneself.
- A psychological condition characterized by self-preoccupation, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem.
- Erotic pleasure derived from contemplation or admiration of one’s own body or self, especially as a fixation on or a regression to an infantile stage of development.
- The attribute of the human psyche characterized by admiration of oneself but within normal limits.
A consuming self-absorption or self-love; a type of egotism. Narcissists constantly assess their appearance, desires, feelings, and abilities.