Narcissism and Intimacy: Love and Marriage in an Age of Confusion

By Marion F. Solomon

Book Overview

In our culture we demand a great deal from our intimate relationships?nd we are often disappointed. This book not only reveals the social and psychological factors that lead to marital unhappiness, but also offers guidelines for change. Solomon starts by uncovering certain pervasive narcissistic myths and exploring what it means to be intimate in a culture that values autonomy and self-fulfillment above all. She shows that experiences in early chidhood can lead to narcissistic vulnerability in later relationships. Case examples from her practice clarify how two individuals' feeling states and defenses mesh in the marital system and how the attempt to defend against emotional injury creates barriers to intimacy. The second part of the book focuses on treatment and on ways to change.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393309169
• ISBN13: 9780393309164
• Release Date: September 1992
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 236 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Reading to Know

This book starts with lot of myths related to entitlement,autonomy,romantic love,gender myths,marriage. Recognizing some amount of narcissim in all relationships, does not make it seem so very pathological...

Love and Marriage Aid

I feel that this book will help both men and women understand not only themselves but their spouse better. All of us have varying degrees of narcissism and in order to love someone we need to learn to control our own needs for the betterment of the two as one and the one we love. This book helps with giving one a better understanding of how we can do that and what may be holding us back from really experiencing true love and intimacy.

Narcissism and Intimacy

A defining dimension of pathological narcissism is the inability to foster and maintain intimacy. Intimacy is not only feared - it is despised because it is perceived as 'common' and 'degrading'. The narcissist idealizes his sources of narcissistic supply and then habitually discards and devalues them. This book is instrumental both as a somewhat iconoclastic introduction to narcissism and as an anatomy of the frustration that is life with a narcissist. Sam Vaknin, author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited".