Narcissism and Melancholy. Psychoanalytic Approach (оn the Example of Individual Case Study)

The problem of narcissism occupies a significant place both in psychoanalytic science and in modern society. We live in the age of social networks, in the age of mirrors, when a person forms an idea of himself not just through the primary environment, but also through the specific mirrors of new technologies. The personality is under serious pressure from the culture of gloss, when the formation of an ideal image and its unattainability often reinforce pathological mental processes. This means that the need to understand the formation of the Self of the individual, the principles of development and interaction with the object is extremely relevant at the moment. In the modern world, specialists of helping professions working in various modalities note the prevailing number of clients seeking help, functioning at the borderline level. This makes it necessary to have a deep theoretical understanding of the mechanisms of the client's problem formation, combined with the ability to use modern working techniques used to work with non-neurotic patients. The following tasks were set in the study: a theoretical explanation of the significance of the relationship between the phenomena of narcissism and melancholy, the study of factors affecting the dynamics of the manifestation of the melancholic core in narcissistic personalities, to determine the applicable concepts and techniques of the psychoanalytic process in dealing with narcissistic issues and to determine the strategy and tactics of working with clients with this problem. Based on the analysis of theoretical and practical material, the importance of having a reliable, constant object for the development of the mature Self of the individual, the ability of the environment to provide the child with an adequate response to his needs, as a result, the child's ability to do the first work of grief and build a full-fledged object relationship with the primary object is demonstrated