On Narcissism (German: Zur Einführung des Narzißmus) is a 1914 essay by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis.

[1][2][3] In the paper, Freud sums up his earlier discussions on the subject of narcissism, considers its place in sexual development,[3] and looks at the deeper problems of the relation between the ego and external objects, reconsidering the libido theory to draw a new distinction between 'ego-libido' and 'object-libido'.

[3][4] The essay is notable for its introduction of the idea of the 'ego ideal', and the self-observing agency related to it, which would later be developed as the concept of the superego.

One of his motives for writing the essay was probably to propose the concept of narcissism as an alternative to Jung's non-sexual 'libido' and Adler's 'masculine protest'.

[3][5] Freud postulates a universal "primary narcissism" that is a phase of sexual development in early infancy (described in an earlier work as a necessary intermediate stage between auto-eroticism and object-love, love for others).