Phallic narcissism

Wilhelm Reich first identified the phallic narcissistic personality type, with excessively inflated self-image. The individual is elitist, a "social climber", admiration seeking, self-promoting, bragging and empowered by social success.[1]

According to Otto Fenichel, 'Phallic characters are persons whose behavior is reckless, resolute and self-assured - traits, however, that have a reactive character: they reflect a fixation at the phallic level, with overvaluation of the penis and confusion of the penis with the whole body'.[2] Fenichel stressed that 'an intense vanity and sensitiveness reveals that these narcissistic patients still have their narcissistic needs...for which they overcompensate'.[3]

Others would add that 'the phallic character conceives of sexual behaviour as a display of potency, in contrast to the genital character, who conceives of it as participation in a relationship'.[4]

References
  1. Reich, Wilhelm (2013), "The Phallic-Narcissistic Character", The Mark of Cain, pp. 219–226, doi:10.4324/9780203779958-21, ISBN 9780203779958, retrieved 2022-12-03
  2. Otto Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (London 1944) p. 495
  3. Fenichel, p. 495
  4. Charles Rycroft, A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (Penguin 1977) p. 117
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.