ABSTRACT
The author had noticed in his clinical work the concurrence of trauma and narcissism. He had observed that the most narcissistic people were those who had undergone severe childhood trauma, so he knew that the two were connected. Narcissism is that state where the author overwhelmed by what has been done to him; by the misfortunes that have occurred to him in his childhood. Self-preoccupation is at its centre, but it is a restricted view of the self. It is not the whole self, but only one aspect of the self. The personality has received a battering, like the hospitalized individual who has been badly injured by the car. The traumatized individual is totally self-absorbed and yet this is what psychoanalysts mean by narcissism. The analyst's task, however, is to demonstrate to the patient the way in which this narcissistic part of the personality is operating.
