SC
2 min readMay 25, 2024

--

Sure there is. The concept existed long before psychiatry became a profession, so there must be.

The concept of excessive selfishness has actually existed throughout history. The English word comes from a Greek story about a dude named Narcissus and a nymph named Echo. It was later retold in Latin form by the Roman poet Ovid, who's story or play influenced medeival and renaissance culture. You see self-lovers popping up in the works of Shakespeare, Cicero, Francis Bacon, and Byron.

It's even in the Bible. Nebuchadnezzar was a narcissist. So was the King of Tyre. Lucifer was cast from heaven because he loved himself above God. It's in Proverbs, Ephesians, 2nd Timothy, Romans, Psalms, the Gospel time and time again (those Pharassees? Narcissists all) Ecclesiastes, Job, Revelations. Probably more.

Psychiatry started arising as a profession in the late 19th century. It was two sexologists who independently of each other went back to the Greek story about Narcissus and Echo and coined the term Narcissus-like. But they weren't using it clinically, as a condition or diagnosis.

Still, it was picked up by the public because everyone was and always had been familiar with the concept of self lovers, the excessively selfish, people trapped in their own egoism. This was just a new phrasing for it.

But Narcissism as a clinical diagnosis describing a personality disorder did not get added to the DSM until 1980.

That's within my lifetime.

And I can assure you the word narcissism was in common use before then because I remember it being a recurring theme in sermons and Sunday School lessons from the time when I was a little girl.

--

--

No responses yet