In this talk I sketch out Sigmund Freud's theory of narcissism and its
reception in psychoanalysis and cultural discourse more broadly. Of
principal concern will be the complaint that psychoanalytic theories of
narcissism inevitably malign 'the feminine'. Beyond an engagement with
some of the late-twentieth century feminist literature on this topic, I
re-examine Freud's feminine narcissist in some detail to ask whether she
may be a more 'attractive' figure than her negative press suggests. The
coquette, a contemporaneous historical representation of woman found in
the sociological work of Georg Simmel, will help me to make the case for
re-situating the narcissist in a vital relation to the dynamics of sociability.
Ultimately, by comparing the narcissist and the coquette, I illustrate that in
addition to encompassing the seductions of self-love, narcissism enacts a call
to the other which is a profoundly social gesture.
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