In the article titled “Thoughts on Narcissism and Narcissistic Rage,” Heinz Kohut discusses the Nazis phenomenon and comments that the leading figures are “the most dreadful manifestation of aggression in the history of modern Western civilization” (634).
Kohut notes that the “perpetrators” deeply believes their destructive activities are out of their self-righteous civilization and greatness. Kohut argues that human aggression turns
dangerous when it stems from narcissistic rage.
Coined by Kohut, narcissistic rage is a reaction to narcissistic injury which is the psychic injury or threat to self-esteem in the setting of the narcissistically vulnerable
individual. Narcissistic rage displays in many forms: it might be the trivial irritation as others fail to properly respond to our greeting or joke but it would also turn into the terrible disaster of Nazis race extermination. According to Kohut, they all belong to the wide realm of human beings’ inherent tendency to aggression and destruction. As Kohut describes,
The need for revenge, for righting a wrong, for undoing a hurt by whatever means, and a deeply anchored, unrelenting compulsion in the pursuit of all these aims, which gives no rest to those who have suffered a narcissistic injury—these are the characteristic features of narcissistic rage in all its forms and which set it apart from
other kinds of aggression. (“Thoughts on Narcissism and Narcissistic Rage”
637-38)
Whenever a narcissist’s self-esteem or self-worth is impaired, he will desperately seek revenge and compensation for the wrong and injustice inflicted on him at any cost. The narcissistic injuries provoking rage and shame can be others’ ridicule, contempt, insult, conspicuous defeat, and so on. Shame and rage are “two principal experiential and behavioral manifestations of disturbed narcissistic equilibrium” (637). Moreover, Kohut observes that a narcissistically vulnerable individual tends to actively inflict narcissistic injuries on others as he detects or anticipates a possible shameful situation. He will actively and deliberately make others suffer the injuries which terrify and torture him most. Kohut enumerates some
phenomena to explain how a narcissistically vulnerable person responses to a possible shame-provoking situation. Kohut adopts and interprets Freud’s idea of turning a passive experience into an active one as one of reactions of the shame-prone individual. Besides, the narcissist who is treated sadistically by their parents will retain the heightened sadistic attitude toward others. The above-mentioned phenomena all reflect a narcissist’s propensity to “the active (often anticipatory) inflicting on others of those narcissistic injuries which he is most afraid of suffering himself” (638). To be specific, a narcissist will actively harm others in advance before others have the chance to hurt him and make him suffer the narcissistic injuries. “The heightened sadism, the adoption of a policy of preventive attack, the need for revenge, and the desire to turn a passive experience into an active one” (639) are all the characteristics of narcissistic rage.
Kohut continues that “[t]he narcissistically injured . . . cannot rest until he has blotted out a vaguely experienced offender who dared to oppose him, to disagree with him, or to outshine him” (644). Kohut uses the evil stepmother in the fairy tale “Snow White” as the example. When asking the mirror who the fairest woman is in the world, the stepmother is told that someone is fairer than her and she immediately takes revenge on Snow White
princess. The evil stepmother’s revenge will never find rest unless the princess disappears in the world. The existence of Snow White is the evidence which contradicts the stepmother’s conviction that she is “unique and perfect.” Thus, the stepmother recklessly and desperately wants to kill the princess and wipe out the evidence which triggers her narcissistic rage and makes her suffer from narcissistic injury. Here Kohut also depicts a kind of emotional state but not directly refer to the term, namely, envy, the unpleasure feeling due to someone else has something you wish to have. The beauty and youth of Snow White sting the eyes of the evil stepmother because these are the qualities which the stepmother desires most. Most importantly, the existence of Snow White reminds the stepmother mother of her lack and defects.
Underlying the various forms of narcissistic rage is the original and idealized perfect sense of the self, that is, the primary narcissism. Based on Freud’s concept of primary
narcissism, Kohut expands his view on this issue. The restless compulsion to take revenge on the offender has only one purpose, that is, to maintain the idealized perfect image of the self.
Kohut argues that “aggression was mobilized in the service of an archaic grandiose self” (643) which is Kohut’s term for the primary narcissism. In addition, Kohut adds that “narcissistic rage arises when self or object fail to live up to the expectations directed at their function”
(644). An individual’s narcissistic rages will be provoked as he fails to fulfill the expectations from outside or others are against his will or expectations. The failure and frustration of expectations leads to the narcissistic injuries. Common people will respond to narcissistic injuries with embarrassment and anger. However, the vulnerable narcissist will react to the offense with the most intense shameful feelings and the most violent narcissistic rage when he feels that he loses the control over the conviction of his perfection and the maintenance of self-esteem or the self. The individual seized by narcissistic rage will react to the offender without any empathy or even with complete cruelty. The “unmodifiable wish” to wipe out the offense forces him to take revenge on the unforgiving offenders. With this consideration in
mind, we “will understand the deeper significance of the often seemingly minor irritant that has provoked an attack of narcissistic rage and will not be taken aback by the seemingly disproportionate severity of the reaction” (645). Kohut’s observations suggest that the seemingly trivial joke or ridicule may incur the severe attack out of one’s narcissistic rage because these trivialities are the pungent offense or even humiliation in the eyes of the
narcissistically vulnerable. In consequence, it is not surprising that sometimes the most trivial thing will disproportionately provoke the most violent and furious reactions from the
shame-prone narcissist.