Narcissism of small differences

The narcissism of small differences (German: der Narzissmus der kleinen Differenzen) is the phenomenon that it is precisely communities with adjoining territories, and related to each other in other ways as well, who are engaged in constant feuds and ridiculing each other such sensitiveness to just these details of differentiation.^[1]

The term was coined by Sigmund Freud in 1917, based on the earlier work of British anthropologist Ernest Crawley: Crawley, in language which differs only slightly from the current terminology of psychoanalysis, declares that each individual is separated from others by a taboo of personal isolation, this narcissism of minor differences.^[2]

The term appeared in Civilization and Its Discontents (1929–30) in relation to the application of the inborn aggression in man to ethnic (and other) conflicts, a process still considered by Freud, at that point, as a convenient and relatively harmless satisfaction of the inclination to aggression.^[3]

For Lacanians, the concept clearly related to the sphere of the Imaginary: the narcissism of small differences, which situates envy as the decisive element in issues that involve narcissistic image.^[4]

Glen O. Gabbard, the American psychiatrist, suggested that Freud's narcissism of small differences provides a framework to understand that in a loving relationship, there can be a need to find, and even exaggerate, differences in order to preserve a feeling of separateness and self.^[5]

In terms of postmodernity, consumer culture has been seen as predicated on the narcissism of small differences to achieve a superficial sense of one's own uniqueness, an ersatz sense of otherness which is only a mask for an underlying uniformity and sameness.^[6]

See also

• Collective narcissism
• Intragroup conflict
• Narcissism
• Sectarianism

References

1. Sigmund Freud, Civilization, Society and Religion (Penguin Freud Library 12) p. 131 and p. 305
2. Sigmund Freud, On Sexuality (Penguin Freud Library 7, 1991) p. 272
3. Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, p. 305
4. Roberto Harari, Lacan's Seminar on Anxiety: An Introduction(2001) p. 25
5. Gabbard, Glen O. M.D., On Hate in Love Relationships: The Narcissism of Minor Differences Revisited, Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 62:229–238
6. Clive Hazell, Alterity (2009) p. 97

Further reading

• An Interview With Freud Biographer Peter D. Kramer by Paul Comstock, April 3, 2007
• Group Psychology and Political Theory, By C. Fred. Alford, pages 40–42, Published 1994, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-05958-2
• Michael Ignatieff, "The Narcissism of Minor Difference," in The Warrior's Honor: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience, pages 34–71 Published 1997, Henry Holt and Co., ISBN 0-8050-5519-3
• Anton Blok, 'The Narcissism of Minor Differences' in Honor and Violence (Cambridge 2001) 115-131
• Middle East sectarianism explained: the narcissism of small differences Victor Argo 13 Apr 2015 Your Middle East