Negative Narcissism:
« Back to Glossary IndexNegative narcissism or death narcissism, a concept developed by French psychoanalyst André Green, is a destructive tendency within the psyche that seeks self-negation and moves toward psychic death, emptiness, or nothingness. It represents a drive to abolish the self, a stark contrast to the life-affirming drive of positive narcissism (seeks to replenish self and achieve unity)—though both can be pathological by negatively affecting outside relationships.
- Aim for nothingness is a narcissistic drive to zero, abolition of ego, and pursuit of psychic death.
- Self-impoverishment, moving the narcissist toward annihilation.
- Connection to Freud’s death drive in its association with narcissism’s death-giving aspect.
- Clinical example, such as the “dead mother complex,” where maternal object is prematurely lost.
