Disorders of Narcissism: Diagnostic, Clinical, and Empirical Implications

This book presents a highly informative, lucid, and clinically useful account of pathological self-absorption and its deleterious effects upon capacities for concern, love, work, and morality. Not only does it address individual psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, it also elucidates the treatment of narcissistic patients in intensive psychiatric milieu, group therapy, schema-focused therapy, and even couples therapy. (Salman Akhtar, MD, is professor of psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College and training and supervising analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.)

This single volume assembles the current thinking of the leading figures in the field. The combination of breadth and thorough discussions that are both scholarly and clinically relevant is unusual and refreshing. Reading this book is like being a privileged guest at a meeting of the people whose work is synonymous with the study of narcissism today. It is a must for anyone who treats, studies, or is interested in narcissistic pathology. (Robert Michels, M.D., Cornell University Medical College; Walsh McDermott University)

Elsa F. Ronningstam, Ph.D., is Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, The Psychosocial Research Center at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, and a Candidate at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. She is also Associate Clinical Psychologist at McLean Hospital and at Two Brattle Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.