ABSTRACT
The word "narcissism" had not been invented when Tolstoy was writing Anna Karenina, but the phenomenon was well known, and the author believe that Tolstoy had a unique understanding of it. The novel centres on three couples: Anna and her husband, Karenin; Oblonsky (sometimes called Stiva) and his wife, Dolly; and Kitty and Levin. To these three couples must be added Vronsky, who elopes with Anna, having initially paid court to Kitty. Anna and Oblonsky are brother and sister, and Kitty and Dolly are sisters, and in this way the three couples are intertwined. The author sees this study of narcissism as a practical project, the purpose of which is to understand the pain of patients who suffer from this condition. For many years believed that narcissistic patients were people who had been traumatized at an early stage in their development, and that this alone was sufficient to explain their narcissistic condition.
