The Right to Narcissism: A Case for an Im-Possible Self-Love (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780823254439)

This book aims to wrest the concept of narcissism from its common and pejorative meanings-- egoism and vanity--by revealing its complexity and importance. DeArmitt undertakes the work of rehabilitating "narcissism" by patiently reexamining the terms and figures that have been associated with it, especially in the writings of Rousseau, Kristeva, and Derrida.

These thinkers are known for incisively exposing a certain (traditional) narcissism that has been operative in Western thought and culture and for revealing the violence it has wrought-- from the dangers of amour-propre and the pathology of a collective "one's own" to the phantasm of the sovereign One. Nonetheless, each of these thinkers denounces the naive denunciation of "narcissism," as the dangers of a non-negotiation with narcissism are more perilous. By rethinking "narcissism" as a complex structure of self-relation through the Other, the book reveals the necessity of an im-possible self-love.

Author: Pleshette Dearmitt
ISBN-10: 0823254437
ISBN-13: 9780823254439
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Language: English
Published: 11/11/2013
Pages: 208
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.10w x 0.80d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 09/01/2014 pg. 88