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Abstract
Morf and Rhodewalt (this issue) provide a masterful summary of the research literature on narcissism. In their view, narcissists are highly motivated to gain the admiration of others, and their attempts to fulfill this motivation are ultimately costly and self-defeating because they ruin the relationships on which they seemingly rely for the admiration they seek. Our comment is intended to carry this analysis one step further. Narcissism can be considered a pattern of addiction. That is, narcissism may not be a lifelong personality trait in the usual sense but rather a pattern of yielding to inner urges in a way that proves costly and self-destructive—not unlike other, more familiar addictions. As a result, a narcissist’s life may be characterized not by a stable sense of inflated self-regard, but rather by periods of relative normality punctuated by phases of self-aggrandizing inflation, possibly leading to destructive consequences that may occasionally cause the person to revert to a more normal, balanced view of self.
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