Narcissism: A New Theory [Paperback]

Neville Symington (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1993

The author presents fresh insights into the subject of narcissism, drawing on his vast clinical experience of treating people suffering from this disorder.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Neville Symington is the author of established psychoanalytic classics including Emotion and Spirit; Narcissism: A New Theory; The Making of a Psychotherapist; The Spirit of Sanity; A Pattern of Madness and How to Choose a Psychotherapist. His previous volume A Pattern of Madness is a magnum opus which gives psychoanalysis a new theoretical structure. He works as a psychoanalyst in private practice in Australia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 137 pages
• Publisher: Karnac Books; 1 edition (December 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1855750473
• ISBN-13: 978-1855750470
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #864,983 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars what's new?, May 27, 2000

By 

Craig Chalquist, PhD, author of TERRAPSYCHOLO... (Bay Area, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Narcissism: A New Theory (Paperback)

For me, the most valuable aspect of the book was its clinical wisdom. I don't consider a collection of ideas a "new theory," however, nor do I see why the "lifegiver"-disrupted relationship concept at the root of the author's vision of narcissism says anything more innovative than "the child has chosen unconsciously to turn away from his or her inner aliveness." Some good critiques of traditional theories of narcissism.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Symington is one of the outstanding theorists of contemporary psychoanalysis, May 2, 2008

By 

Michael R. Miller "MSSA, LCSW" (Medford, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Narcissism: A New Theory (Paperback)

Symington presents a fresh approach to the suject of Narcissism. I am currently in a Ph.D. program at the Institute for Clincial Social Work in Chicago. The program is psychodynamically based and Symington's book is one of the texts for the clinical process and technique class. I highly recommend this work-- easy to read and clincially profound with refreshing ideas!!! Michael Miller, MSSA, LCSW

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not convincing, April 15, 2011

By 

MWin (Sweden, Stockholm) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Narcissism: A New Theory (Paperback)

The title "Narcissism - a new theory" is promising, but Symington doesn't quite succeed in challenging the old theories (which he criticizes harshly). He introduces a new psychic object: the "life-giver" which is a hypostatized energy-source which, allegedly, the narcissist has turned away from, in early infancy. Accordingly, the narcissist developes a false and shallow attitude towards life. In Symington's view narcissism is an habitual attitude which can be reversed. To my mind, it's not much of a theory. It's rather a way of describing the phenomenology of the illness. Symington draws largely upon myths and the novel Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, when analysing the problem. But I am sceptical of this method. Characters from myth and fiction cannot do justice to a psychic etiology because such characters are more of abstractions than true persons. Real case histories are preferable when describing pathological traits. Thus, Symington's book is not convincing, although I cannot argue that he is altogether wrong. Certain of his postulates are noteworthy, for instance, that the psyche is composed of relatively independent parts or complexes.