Miriam Webster defines Primary Narcissism as the stage of a child’s primary concern with himself as an organism prior to awareness of external reality as a mediating factor. Freud was more verbose, as one might expect given his oral fixation. (“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar” Okay, if you say so Siggy). Freud suggested that exclusive self-love might not be as abnormal as previously thought and might even be a common component in the human psyche. He argued that narcissism “is the libidinal complement to the egoism of the instinct of self-preservation,” or, more simply, the desire and energy that drives one’s instinct to survive. He referred to this as primary narcissism. It’s a developmental stage out of which healthy people pass. I am becoming more and more convinced that today’s twenty-somethings may have gotten stuck somewhere along the way, and I have a better definition than any of the official ones. I walked into the bathroom the other day when the only person home other than me was my 25 year old daughter. I think the picture says it all.