Narcissism of small differences

The Narcissism of small differences is a term coined by Sigmund Freud in 1917, based on the earlier work of British anthropologist Ernest Crawley. 'Crawley, in language which differs only slightly from the current terminology of psychoanalysis, declares that each individual is separated from others by a "taboo of personal isolation"...this "narcissism of minor differences"'.^[1] The term describes 'the phenomenon that it is precisely communities with adjoining territories, and related to each other in other ways as well, who are engaged in constant feuds and ridiculing each other' - 'such sensitiveness...to just these details of differentiation'.^[2]

The term appeared in Civilization and Its Discontents (1929–1930)^[3] in relation to the application of the inborn aggression in man to ethnic (and other) conflicts - a process still considered by Freud at that point in time as 'a convenient and relatively harmless satisfaction of the inclination to aggression'^[4]

For Lacanians, the concept clearly related to the sphere of the Imaginary: 'the narcissism of small differences, which situates envy as the decisive element...in issues that involve narcissistic image'.^[5]

Glen O. Gabbard, M.D. suggested Freud's "Narcissism of Small Difference" provides a framework within which to understand that in a loving relationship there can be a need to find, and even exaggerate, differences in order to preserve a feeling of separateness and self.^[6]

In terms of postmodernity, consumer culture has been seen as predicated on 'the "narcissism of small differences"...to achieve a superficial sense of one's own uniqueness, an ersatz sense of otherness which is only a mask for an underlying uniformity and sameness'.^[7]

See also

• Infighting

References

1. ^ Sigmund Freud, On Sexuality (Penguin Freud Library 7, 1991) p. 272
2. ^ Sigmund Freud, Civilization, Society and Religion (Penguin Freud Library 12) p. 131 and p. 305
3. ^ Freud, Sigmund, Civilization and Its Discontents
4. ^ Freud, Civilization p. 305
5. ^ Roberto Harari, Lacan's Seminar on Anxiety: An Introduction(2001) p. 25
6. ^ Gabbard, Glen O. M.D.On Hate in Love Relationships: The Narcissism of Minor Differences Revisited(1993). Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 62:229-238
7. ^ Clive Hazell, Alterity (2009) p. 97

Further reading

• An Interview With Freud Biographer Peter D. Kramer by Paul Comstock, April 3, 2007
• Group Psychology and Political Theory, By C. Fred. Alford, pages 40–42, Published 1994, Yale University Press, ISBN 0300059582
• Michael Ignatieff, "The Narcissism of Minor Difference," in The Warrior's Honor: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience, pages 34–71 Published 1997, Henry Holt and Co., ISBN 0805055193