Gender and Narcissism

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Abstract
Within social science and psychoanalytic literature the “narcissistic personality” is considered to be the “personality of our time.” It is universally assumed to describe both female and male experience, insofar as there exists no reference in either the psychoanalytic or sociological literature to any relationship between narcissism and gender. This gender neutrality is brought into question, however, by the disproportionate representation of men in the clinical case material that forms the basis of our understanding of what narcissism is and how it functions as both a psychological and social pathology. This article demonstrates that narcissism—as a personality type and pathological disorder—denotes a way of being in the world that is primarily if not exclusively experienced by men. It appears that a particular form of family structure underlies the development of narcissism in men and cultivates asymmetrical yet intersecting problems in women. The gender bias ingredient in the term “narcissism” must be recognized and diagnoses, descriptions, and etiological explanations of the narcissistic personality should reflect such recognition.

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