ABSTRACT
So begins an essay by S. E. Pulver aimed at clarifying the meaning of the term, in which the author rightly points out that it is in need of amplification. The many modes of experience and behaviour that are characterized today as being ‘narcissistic’ can no longer be explained by Hartmann’s (1964) formula of a ‘libidinous investment of the self ’. There is nevertheless a common denominator amongst them: relatedness to the self rather than to ‘objects’. The lexicon of the American Psychoanalytic Association defines narcissism as ‘concentration of psychic interest on the self ’. Psychic interest is a term that not only applies to instinctual drives but also closely approaches the Jungian idea of psychic energy as a non-specific form of energy that can manifest itself in a broad range of forms.
