HEALTHY NARCISSISM AND NEW-AGE INDIVIDUALISM: A SYNTHESIS OF THE THEORIES OF CARL ROGERS AND HEINZ KOHUT

Many writers within contemporary industrial-age society have criticized individualism on the grounds that it is antithetical to altruism and leads to what is pejoratively referred to as narcissism. In contrast, new-age writers have developed a view of individualism which includes both a self-realization ethic and an ecological ethic that balance the value placed on development of selfhood with the value placed on development of altruism as well as a total ecological perspective. The purpose of this study is to describe the underlying psychological foundation for this new-age individualism by synthesizing the psychological theories and methods of Carl Rogers and Heinz Kohut that concern healthy narcissistic development. Rogers and Kohut have independently researched the psychological growth-promoting conditions (shared power, genuineness, empathy, and acceptance) that are necessary for healthy narcissistic development to occur. This study includes examples of their research drawn from a variety of settings: psychotherapy, the family, the encounter group, education, and industry. The results of Rogers' and Kohut's research show that under these growth-promoting conditions, individuals narcissistically mature as they transform their exhibitionistic needs into healthy self-esteem and self-motivating ambitions, and they transform their idealizing needs into healthy admiration and empathy for other people and self-guiding ideals. The maturation of narcissistic exhibitionistic needs provides the individual with the psychological foundation to live in accordance with the new-age self-realization ethic, while the maturation of narcissistic idealizing needs provides the psychological foundation to live in accordance with the new-age ecological ethic. Individuals who have narcissistically matured will thus create social conditions characterized by egalitarian power, genuine empathic acceptance of other people, and altruism.