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Narcissism: Denial of the True Self By Alexander Lowen ( Touchstone )
Release Date: 2004-03-30
Average Customer Rating:
List Price: $14.00
Price: $11.20
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Product Description
NARCISSISMAre you a narcissist? Do you interact with someone who is? Contrary to popular belief, narcissists do not love themselves or anyone else. They cannot accept their true selves, constructing instead fixed masks that hide emotional numbness. Influenced by forces in culture and predisposed by factors in the human personality, narcissists tend to be• More concerned with how they appear than what they feel • Seductive and manipulative, striving for power and control • Egotists, focused on their own interests but lacking the true values of the self -- self-expression, self-possession, dignity, and integrity • Without a solid sense of self, which leads them to experience life as empty and meaningless In this groundbreaking study, Dr. Alexander Lowen uses his extensive clinical experience to demonstrate how narcissists can recover their suppressed feelings and regain their lost humanity. By the use of Bioenergetic Analysis, the psychotherapy created by Dr. Lowen, a new possibility of a fulfilling and authentic life is presented for people with narcissistic characteristics and for those who interact with them.
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 Insightful and helpful ( kimotomg )
One of my family members is narcissist. This book explained why I sufferred so much from this person.
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 A book for the narcissist, not the narcissist's victims ( sammymadison )
If you are the victim of a narcissist in the first stages of learning about narcissism there are several excellent books available about this disorder that will be much more readable and more helpful to you. It is important that you not make this the one book you read on the subject. The very best book is by Sam Vaknin, who wrote a review of Lowen's book on Amazon. Vaknin's book is entitled "Malignant Self Love". Vaknin pulls no punches in telling the victim of the narcissist the facts of life: your narcissist does not love you, never has and never will. Things will not get better. Get out before you are abused further. Vaknin does not hold out false hopes that therapy will make it all better. Although of course all narcissists are not the same, their treatment of others ALWAYS follows very specific, very destructive patterns. Narcissists specialize in using lies and false encouragement to get others to do their bidding, and a narcissist is perfectly capable of going to therapy, manipulating the therapist, and using the experience to feed the disorder, not cure it. Lowen's work, on the other hand, seems to center on the narcissist as the victim of the disorder, minimizing the destruction caused to people in the narcissist's life. For that reason might be more encouraging and helpful to the narcissist himself, as opposed to the narcissist's family. There is good information in this book about the origins of the disorder. So if you are the narcissist, read this book. I'm sure it will help you to understand your disorder. If you are the victim of a narcissist, please don't take Lowen's book as a sign that you should stay with a narcissist and think the condition is treatable. Personality disorders are almost impossible to treat.
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 Look a little deeper
The subject matter of this book is fascinating, no question about it. I found myself looking beyond the professional-speak to try to get to the heart of the writing, and to understand the treatment methods he uses & discusses.
What really turned me off, though, and caused me to stop reading it completely, was when he relates one instance where, in the name of therapy, he leans over 12 inches from the face of one patient (who by the way he treats on a bed, not a traditional therapist's couch), and ask "do you want to kiss me?". (Although he is very careful to say "I don't kiss my patients, but I do permit them to express their feelings verbally.)
As if the people he is treating are not confused and troubled enough......I am certainly no professional, but that alone seems like it would be cause for a lawsuit at the least, or professional license revocation at the most.
That said, there are many other books on the market with a more practical, readable, and sensible approach to the difficult subject of narcissism.
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Narcissism, the original sin !! ( skaffrichard@aol.com )
Dr. Lowen has written one of the best books on the topic of narcissism. In a narcissistic, consumeristic, power hungry, and youth oriented society, this book will make a great hit !
I would highly recommend it for the brave mind that is interested in learning this subject. it's a book worth reading. "Narcissism, Denial of the True Self" will provide the reader with clear insight and education about this prevalent individual and societal disorder.
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Well Written ( pollockn )
I enjoyed this book. Also, found it quite helpful -- since I know a Narcissist personally. But, I didn't realize that he had a clinical condition prior to reading this book. It fit him like a glove!!! I don't find Dr. Lowen's Freudian orientation objectionable--that's his perspective. Yes, it would have been nice if he had delineated alternate (non-Freudian) theories too, but it isn't required. After all, he probably doesn't agree with them. Unlike some of the reviewers, I don't think Freudian theory has been utterly displaced in psychology. I think there's room for lots of approaches and that if psychologists and therapists took a more eclectic view, they'd be far more successful in treating their clients/patients. By the way, while I did study Freud (and others) in colleges, I'm basically a Jungian layman--not a Freudian.
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