[Update] Exploring Digital Narcissisms
Reconstruction 13.3: Exploring Digital Narcissisms
For Freud, narcissism is the investment of libidinal energy redirected away from objects and toward the ego, whereas Lacan tells us it is a failure arising from the mirror stage precipitating a fruitless and perpetual search for the perfected image of the self. A "healthy" narcissism entails an optimal level of self-regard and esteem, whereas an "unhealthy" narcissism can lead to emotionally destructive consequences. In this way, the operative "borderline" between healthy ego formation and reactive defense of a fragile ego construct may, in fact, be more pronounced of an issue in the online environment where this struggle may find itself trans-or superimposed.