Sartre's contribution to the understanding of narcissism

As a means for presenting Sartre's insights into the narcissistic problems of the self, we have used his phenomenological system as articulated in Being and Nothingness (1943) to illuminate these issues in the personality of Roquentin, the hero of his novel Nausea (1938). Roquentin attempts to stabilize his fragmenting self and to avoid "nausea" by using three mechanisms which Sartre argues maintain the self from drowning in the objects of the self. These are "reflection," "temporality" (continuity through time), and "being-for-others" (how we experience another's view of ourselves). In Sartre's conception of being-for-others lies many clinically useful insights which can be used to explain both the structure and the instability of the transferences seen in the treatment of narcissistic personality disorders. Sartre demonstrates by implication that the patient must maintain (by using bad faith, i.e., disavowal) that the therapist is acting freely, or these transferences collapse. Thus, the patient must feel he is the unique and special "occasion," of any warmth, empathy, or compliments. A case example is included to illustrate these issues of freedom and bad faith.