Narcissistic elation or narcissistic coenaesthetic expansion were terms used by Hungarian psychoanalyst Béla Grunberger to highlight 'the narcissistic situation of the primal self in narcissistic union with the mother'. Narcissistic elation has also been used more widely to describe a variety of conditions, including states of being in

love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love o ...

, of triumph, and of obtaining self-understanding.

Grunberger's definition

The term was coined to describe the state of prenatal beatitude, which according to him characterizes the life of the fetus: a state of megalomaniacal happiness amounting to a perfect homeostasis, devoid of needs or desires. The ideal here is bliss experienced in absolute withdrawal from the object and from the outside world. Narcissistic elation is at once the memory of this unique and privileged state of elation; a sense of well-being of completeness and omnipotence linked to that memory, and pride in having experienced this state, pride in its (illusory) oneness. Narcissistic elation is characteristic of an object relationship that is played out, in its negative version, as a state of splendid isolation, and, in its positive version, as a desperate quest for fusion with the other, for a mirror-image relationship. It involves a return to paradise lost and all that is attached to this idea: fusion, self-love, megalomania, omnipotence, immortality, and invulnerability. After birth, the infant continues to enjoy the protonarcissistic existence as before, and this is reinforced by the fact that people around it, in particular the mother, meet all its needs and wishes. This state of illusion is soon compromised, however, as inevitable frustrations begin to occur. The traces of this state of elation and megalomania, based on the notions of harmony and omnipotence, nevertheless provide a source of psychic energy that will remain active throughout life. The child, and later the adult, will seek to preserve and return to this narcissistic mode of being, notably through music, passionate love, or mystical ecstasy. Perhaps, after all, what fascinated Narcissus was the sight—beyond his own reflection—of the amniotic water, and the deep, regressive promise of happiness that it held out. Following an initial period of elation known as the "honeymoon", psychoanalytic treatment must succeed in bringing together the narcissistic elements of the self by integrating them into interpretations of reality: ego-libido and object-libido must arrive at a satisfactory compromise.

Oceanic origins

Freud had used the term oceanic feeling to describe 'an early phase of ego-feeling...the oceanic feeling, which might seek something like the restoration of limitless

narcissism Narcissism is a self-centered personality style characterized as having an excessive interest in one's physical appearance or image and an excessive preoccupation with one's own needs, often at the expense of others. Narcissism exists on a co ...

'. Grunberger and André Green have subsequently 'traced narcissism to pre-natal states of elation, making it biological and drive-driven'. Building on 'the state of prenatal beatitude, which according to him characterizes the life of the fetus', Grunberger therefore considered that 'narcissistic elation is at once the memory of this unique and privileged state of elation; a sense of well-being of completeness and omnipotence linked to that memory, and pride in having experienced this state, pride in its (illusory) oneness'.

Ego ideal

Freud also explored how 'in cases of mania the ego and ego ideal have fused together...in a mood of triumph and self-satisfaction'. Grunberger considered such states as reaching back to the primal narcissistic elation, and as drawing on 'traces of this state of elation and megalomania, based on the notions of harmony and omnipotence'. Building on his work,

Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel (1928 – March 5, 2006) (whose surname is alternatively spelled Chasseguet-Smirguel, but generally not in English-language publications) was a leading French psychoanalyst, a training analyst, and past President of the ...

claims that 'it is indeed therefore narcissistic elation, the meeting of ego and ideal, that dissolves the superego'. One may consider in general that 'the feeling of triumph...brings with it "oceanic" feelings, because it represents reunion with the omnipotent one'.

Toddling

With respect to a slightly later phase of early development,

Margaret Mahler Margaret Schönberger Mahler (May 10, 1897 in Ödenburg, Austria-Hungary; October 2, 1985 in New York) was an Austrian-American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and pediatrician. She did pioneering work in the field of infant and young child ...

'describes the practising junior toddler's

omnipotent Omnipotence is the quality of having unlimited power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence only to the deity of their faith. In the monotheistic religious philosophy of Abrahamic religions, omnipotence is often listed as one ...

exhilaration (excitement) and narcissistic elation (joy)' at learning to walk—the 'tremendously exhilarating, truly dramatic effect that upright locomotion had'—noting however that 'it is precisely at the point where the child is at the peak of his delusion of omnipotence...that his narcissism is particularly vulnerable to deflation'. In the wake of the toddler's new achievement, 'from dawn to dusk he marches around in an ecstatic, drunken dance...quite in love with himself for being so clever'.

Self-understanding

Narcissistic elation may subsequently be reactivated within a therapeutic context.

Edmund Bergler Edmund Bergler ( , ; July 20, 1899 – February 6, 1962) was an Austrian-born American psychoanalyst whose books covered such topics as childhood development, mid-life crises, loveless marriages, gambling, self-defeating behaviors, and homosexualit ...

wrote of 'the narcissistic elation that comes from self-understanding'; while

Herbert Rosenfeld Herbert Alexander Rosenfeld (2 July 1910 – 29 November 1986) was a German-British psychoanalyst. Rosenfeld made seminal contributions to Kleinian thinking on psychotic and other very ill patients; while his emphasis on the role of the analy ...

described what he called the re-emergence of '"narcissistic omnipotent object relations"...in the clinical situation'. Somewhat similarly, Lacan spoke of 'the megalomaniac ebriety which... the index of the termination of the analysis in present practice'.

Love

In later life, the adult may seek to 'return to this narcissistic mode of being, notably through music, passionate love, or mystical ecstasy'. For some, the whole 'purpose of love... sequal exchange in an atmosphere of shared narcissistic elation'. Others may consider as ultimately futile this 'search for a pure narcissistic exaltation, the elation procured by the imaginary contemplation of the object'; and yet still recognise the power of 'the enchantment of love...as the exaltation of the other...this breathlessness which, with the other, has created the most false of demands, that of narcissistic satisfaction'.

Cultural examples

In ''

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' is the first novel of Irish writer James Joyce. A ''Künstlerroman'' written in a modernist style, it traces the religious and intellectual awakening of young Stephen Dedalus, Joyce's fictional al ...

'', a 'cold intellectual arrogance and narcissistic elation' have been identified in 'the highly ambitious speculations attributed to

Stephen Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

—the central protagonist—with respect to aesthetics.