Narcissistic Personality
A psychological condition characterised by grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy, named after Narcissus, the beautiful youth who fell in love with his own reflection
The Meaning of Narcissistic Personality
Narcissistic personality disorder takes its name from the myth of Narcissus, a youth of extraordinary beauty who was the son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Liriope. The seer Tiresias prophesied that Narcissus would live a long life as long as he never knew himself. Narcissus rejected all who loved him, including the nymph Echo, who wasted away until only her voice remained. The goddess Nemesis, angered by his cruelty, led Narcissus to a clear pool where he saw his own reflection and fell hopelessly in love with it. Unable to embrace the beautiful image in the water, he wasted away and died, and in his place grew the flower that bears his name. The psychoanalyst Havelock Ellis first used "narcissism" as a clinical term in 1898, and Freud later developed the concept extensively. Narcissistic personality disorder is now a recognised clinical diagnosis in the DSM-5, characterised by a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and inability to empathise with others. The myth precisely captures the disorder's central feature: the inability to truly see or love another because one is entirely consumed by one's own image.
Parents
None recorded
Symbols
Fun Fact
The clinical term narcissism was first used in 1898 by Havelock Ellis, but Freud developed it into the concept that pervades modern psychology and popular culture
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Narcissism
💭 conceptSelf-obsession, vanity, psychology
Excessive self-love or self-absorption, from the hunter Narcissus who fell in love with his own reflection.
Narcissus and Echo
💭 conceptNarrative
The intertwined fates of a youth who loved only his own reflection and a nymph cursed to repeat others' words
Oedipus Complex
💭 conceptPsychoanalysis and psychology
A Freudian psychoanalytic concept describing a child's unconscious desire for the parent of the opposite sex, named after the mythological king who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother
Psyche
💭 conceptLanguage and psychology
An English word meaning the human mind or soul, derived from Psyche, the mortal woman whose love for Eros and trials among the gods became an allegory for the soul's journey
Eros
💭 conceptPrimordial god of love and desire
In the oldest myths, Eros was a primordial force — one of the first beings to emerge from Chaos, the power that draws all things together. Later reimagined as Aphrodite's mischievous son.
Mania
💭 conceptMadness and Prophecy
The Greek concept of divinely inspired madness, distinguished from ordinary insanity.
Plato
💭 conceptPhilosophy, myth, forms
Athenian philosopher who both critiqued traditional myths and created powerful new ones in his dialogues
Lēthē
💭 conceptmythology, philosophy
Forgetfulness or oblivion — the river or force of forgetting in the underworld, and the philosophical problem of how the soul loses or retains its knowledge.
Enthousiasmos
💭 conceptReligion and Inspiration
The state of being possessed by a god, the original meaning of divine inspiration in Greek religion.
Electra Complex
💭 conceptPsychoanalysis and psychology
A psychoanalytic concept proposed by Carl Jung describing a daughter's unconscious rivalry with her mother for her father's affection, named after the mythological princess who urged the murder of her mother
Pygmalion Effect
💭 conceptPsychology and education
A psychological phenomenon in which higher expectations lead to improved performance, named after the mythological sculptor whose statue came to life because he believed in her so completely
Metamorphoses
💭 conceptTransformation, punishment, mercy
Stories of mortals and gods reshaped into new forms — by love, divine punishment, or compassion — central to how Greeks explained the natural world.