Healthy narcissism

For other uses, see Narcissism (disambiguation).

Healthy narcissism is a positive sense of self that is in alignment with the greater good.[1][2][3] The concept of healthy narcissism was first coined by Paul Federn and gained prominence in the 1970s through the research of Heinz Kohut and Otto Kernberg.[1][4] It developed slowly out of the psychoanalytic tradition, and became popular in the late twentieth century.[1]

The concept of healthy narcissism is used in clinical psychology and popular psychology as an aid to self-assertion and success.[1][3][5][6] It has indeed been suggested that it is useful to think of a continuum of narcissism, ranging from deficient to healthy to pathological, with stable narcissism and destructive narcissism as stopping-points in between.[1][3][7] Recent scientific work suggests that healthy narcissism reflects an abundance of agentic/self-enhancing features and a relative absence of antagonistic/other-derogating elements.[8]

  1. ^ a b c d e Jenkins, Robert (2019-01-08). "Healthy Narcissism and Narcissistic Personality Disorder". Specialized Therapy. Archived from the original on 2020-06-27. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  2. ^ "What Is Healthy Narcissism?". Psychology Today. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  3. ^ a b c Kinsey, Michael (2020-06-21). "Dear Survivors of Narcissistic Abuse: Own Your Healthy Narcissism!". Mindsplain. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Lunbech was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Wendy T. Behary, Disarming the narcissist (2009) p. 26–9
  6. ^ "Wendy Behary on the Narcissim Spectrum". July 2022.
  7. ^ Nina W. Brown, Children of the Self-Absorbed (2008) p. 7
  8. ^ Back, M. D., Küfner, A. C., Dufner, M., Gerlach, T. M., Rauthmann, J. F., & Denissen, J. J. (2013). Narcissistic admiration and rivalry: disentangling the bright and dark sides of narcissism. Journal of personality and social psychology, 105(6), 1013.