narcissmus

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    Dennis,
    
    DSM-IV is a construct of the American Psychiatric 
    Association.  It's the fourth revision of their Diagnostic 
    & Statistical Manual intended to standardise psychiatric 
    diagnoses.  It describes innumerable clinical states, 
    each with its necessary list of symptoms & signs.  
    The theory is: tick the appropriate boxes & you will 
    be handed a universally recognised diagnosis to attach 
    to your patient.  

    It's marvellously useful for the kind of research nut 
    who wants to sound scientific when trying to tell us 
    that faecal tin correlates strongly with obsessive compulsive 
    nasal preoccupations.  It's as useful to a practising clinician, 
    of course, as a very fine mesh net would be to your everyday 
    whaler.

    Your question about narcissism & trauma strikes me as 
    very valid one.  The psychoanalysts suggest that narcissism 
    can sometimes be a healing, a nourishing process.  The individual 
    who has been damaged, hurt, - physically or emotionally - 
    redirects all his psychic resources inwards, giving a priority, 
    as it were, to his own needs over those of the outside world.  
    To some extent we all do this.  The hurt cat withdraws to 
    a corner to recuperate.  The sick child curls up in bed.  
    But those with the special gift of being able to pamper 
    themselves, to baby themselves, hold an advantage over those 
    who find themselves forever obliged to put the needs 
    of others before their own.

    Even aside from this 'therapeutic' aspect, there is for most 
    of us something fascinating & intriguing about great narcissists.  
    Freud pointed out that children, animals, great beauties, 
    great criminals, often great artists - all hold a special allure 
    for the rest of us.  Despite ourselves, we're drawn to their 
    self-sufficiency, their indifference to us.  We find ourselves 
    in the position of pemanently rejected lovers forever trying 
    to break into their magical citadels.  They're frustrating, 
    but compelling bastards.  And I freely admit to being
    enthralled by them - perhaps even, sometimes, half belonging 
    with them.

    Scottie B.

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