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Healthy Narcissism
This article is about normal narcissism. For the pathological condition of Narcissism, see Narcissistic Personality disorder and for narcissism in the generic sense, see Narcissism.

What is Healthy Narcissism?
Narcissism in the generic sense describes the character trait of self love, based on self-image or ego. In general, narcissism is seen in a more negative manner, related to excessive levels of self-esteem and a devaluation of others. However, this might be too narrow-minded. Healthy narcissism is formed through a structural truthfulness of the self, achievement of self and object constancy, synchronization between the self]and the superego, a balance between libidinal and aggressive drives, the ability to get gratification from others and the drive for impulse expression. Healthy narcissism forms a constant, realistic self-interest and mature goals and principles, and an ability to form deep object relations. A feature related to healthy narcissism is the feeling of greatness. This is used to avoid the feeling of being small.

Healthy Narcissism: a required element within normal development
Healthy narcissism exist in all individuals. Sigmund Freud says that this is an original state from the individual from where to develop the love object. Freud argues that healthy narcissism is an essential part in normal development. The love of the parents for their child and their attitude towards their child could be seen as a revival and reproduction of their own narcissism according to Freud in On Narcissism: An Introduction. The child has an omnipotence of thought. The parents stimulate that feeling because in their child they see the things they have never reached themselves. Compared to neutral observations, the parents tend to overvalue the qualities of their child. When parents act in an extreme opposite style and the child is rejected or inconsistently reinforced depending on the mood of the parent, the self-needs of the child are not met.

Healthy narcissism in relation to the pathological condition
Healthy narcissism has to do with a strong feeling of “own love” protecting the human being against illness. However, eventually the individual must love the other, “the object love to not become ill". The person gets ill, as a result of a frustration, when he can’t love the object . In pathological narcissism such as the Narcissistic Personality Disorder and schizophrenia the person’s libido has been withdrawn from objects in the world and produces megalomania. The clinical theorists Kernberg, Kohut and Millon all see pathological narcissism as a possible outcome in response to an empathetic and inconsistent early childhood interactions. They suggested that narcissists try to fill the void left in childhood in their adult relationships . The pathological condition of narcissism is, as Sigmund Freud suggested, a magnified, extreme manifestation of healthy narcissism. With regard to the condition of healthy narcissism, it is suggested that this is correlated with good psychological health. Self-esteem works as a mediator between narcissism and psychological health, That is, thanks to their elevated self-esteem, deriving from self-perceptions of competence and likeability, high narcissists are relatively free of worry and gloom. Other researchers suggested that healthy narcissism cannot be seen as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, however, it depends on the contexts and outcomes being measured. In certain social contexts such as initiating social relationships, and with certain outcome variables, such as feeling good about oneself, healthy narcissism can be helpful. In other contexts, like maintaining long-term relationships and with other outcome variables, such as accurate self-knowledge, healthy narcissism can be unhelpful.