narcissism
Americannoun
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inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity.
- Synonyms:
- egocentrism, smugness
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Psychiatry. narcissistic personality disorder.
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Psychoanalysis. erotic gratification derived from admiration of one's own physical or mental attributes, being a normal condition at the infantile level of personality development.
noun
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an exceptional interest in or admiration for oneself, esp one's physical appearance
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sexual satisfaction derived from contemplation of one's own physical or mental endowments
Other Word Forms
- narcissist noun
- narcissistic adjective
- narcist noun
- narcistic adjective
- nonnarcism noun
- nonnarcissism noun
Etymology
Origin of narcissism
First recorded in 1820–25, and in 1900–05 narcissism for def. 3; narcissus, -ism. The psychoanalysis meaning is from the German word Narzissismus, coined in 1899 by Paul Näcke (1851–1913), German psychiatrist and criminologist
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Mr. Kline’s timing is sublime, whether he’s immersed in Richard’s narcissism or enchanting a crowd of locals with an excerpt from, again, “Hamlet.”
The art that he created there embodies a kind of deconstructed narcissism; Samaras is fascinated with himself, but mostly as—to paraphrase the photographer Garry Winogrand’s choice of subjects—“something to be photographed.”
"It's a confused mix of ambition and narcissism, unleavened by any effort at intellectual coherence," said Bruce Jones, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
From Barron's
Young Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, is burdened with self-reproach, while old King Lear suffers from narcissism, vanity and madness.
But his pitting of empathy in direct opposition to that clarity about our limitations is self-serving and, let’s be real, the kind of man-child narcissism currently being celebrated as strength.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
