Narcissism, Face and Social Interaction

Facing Narcissism is Academy Professor Anssi Peräkylä's research project (2019–2023), which investigates the ways in narcissistic personality features and personality disorders manifest themselves in face-to-face social interaction. The work is inspired by the ideas of the sociologist Erving Goffman, who maintained that self is an ever-present concern in social interaction: people work to maintain and defend a positive self-image, or "face", in themselves and also in others. Individuals with narcissistic features are particularly sensitive to the ways in which their selves are recognized by others, resulting in what is often called grandiosity or vulnerability of self. In the Facing Narcissism project, we study social interaction in narcissism, thereby increasing our knowledge about interactional practices related to self, as well as about personality disorders.