Narcissistic neurosis is a term introduced by Sigmund Freud to distinguish the class of neuroses characterised by their lack of object relations and their fixation upon the early stage of libidinal narcissism.
About the same time, in the wake of the work of Karl Abraham, he began to modify to a degree his view on the inaccessibility of narcissistic neurosis to analytic treatment.
[7] However his late lectures from the thirties confirmed his opinion of the unsuitability of narcissistic and psychotic conditions for treatment "to a greater or less extent";[8] as did his posthumous 'Outline of Psychoanalysis'.
[9] From the twenties onwards, Freud's views of the inaccessibility of the narcissistic neuroses to analytic influence had been challenged, first by Melanie Klein,[10] and then by object relations theorists more broadly.
[11] While classical analysts like Robert Waelder would maintain Freud's delimiting standpoint into the sixties, eventually even within ego psychology challenges to the 'off-limits' view of what were increasingly seen as borderline disorders emerged.