Depression, personality, and grief—self, value, and narcissistic vulnerability

A healthy love of oneself, and love of significant others, helps the individual to find herself or himself a place in the world of people. From Freud (1917e & 1894a) to Bowlby (1973b), Kohut (1972), and Meares (1999a) the need to be valued, in order to be seen as valuable, is stressed—this is necessary for a healthy sense of self. Chronic devaluation in the context of an early, emotionally uncaring or critical environment creates a fertile ground for the development of poor self-esteem, lack of confidence, and a poor sense of self which then generates the emergence of negative feelings such as guilt or shame, or both.