ABSTRACT
The concept of narcissism is used in both a descriptive and an explanatory sense. It describes the tendency to over-value and idealize mental and physical aspects of the self and objects. The usage of the terms narcissism and narcissistic is further complicated by the fact that the concept is an integral part of the libido theory. A fundamental component of the theory of narcissistic object relations is the concept of the boundary of the self—that boundary which differentiates the self representations from object representations. G. S. Klein’s theory of narcissism is predicated on the boundary concept. H. Kohut’s theory of the development of narcissism is based on psychoanalytic work with patients whose condition he described as “narcissistic personality disorders”. The theory that narcissistic object relations are the outcome of a defence is common to those who subscribe to Sigmund Freud’s libido theory and to those who follow Klein’s theory of schizoid mechanisms.
