ABSTRACT
The pathological grandiose self is experienced in isolation, and self-esteem regulation is dependent on external admiration from others, rather than on the security of an internalized world of significant object relations. The dominant pathology of the time experience of narcissistic personalities derives from the destruction of their internalized world of object relations, a result of the development of a pathological grandiose self that incorporates real and idealized representations of self and others. In psychoanalytic treatment, narcissistic patients typically evince their defences against dependency on the analyst by an unconscious devaluation of what they receive from him/her, thus warding off envy of the therapist they need. The unconscious use of the destruction of time as a triumph over the analyst while also expressing the fantasy of an available eternity of life to the narcissistic patient may, initially, escape the analyst’s attention; the patient may, unconsciously, tease the analyst with apparent changes.
