Abstract

A number of writers have argued recently that modern psychological theories reflect fundamental ideological commitments of one sort or another. It appears that major theories of psychotherapy, for example, are shaped at the core by current cultural and moral values in a largely uncritical manner. Nowhere are these difficulties and confusions about the theoretical and moral underpinnings of psychotherapy more evident than in current debates about the nature of psychological narcissism. The dissertation argues that these serious theoretical and clinical disagreements about narcissism turn out to stem from underlying and largely unacknowledged commitments to quite different, value-laden, views of human nature and fulfillment. Because of these underlying differences, a straightforward integration of diverse theories of narcissism is impossible. Moreover, once these differences are brought to light, it becomes evident that they reflect unresolved confusions about mental well-being, desirable relationships and the modern culture at large. The dissertation argues that the problems uncovered within and the issues between these influential theories of narcissism cannot be understood or resolved without exposing their deeper roots and broaching these controversial and troubling issues of cultural and moral values