| Long before psychologists of this century established diagnostic criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder, George Eliot identified narcissistic behaviors and intuited motives associated with this malady. In recent years, literary critics have begun to comprehend the depth of her insight into human psychology. This thesis argues that in Romola, Middlemarch, and Daniel Deronda, Eliot creates characters who exhibit motives and behaviors identified by psychologist Otto F. Kernberg and others and sets out remedies that remarkably resemble those cited by Stephen M. Johnson. My work also emphasizes Eliot's efforts to provide readers with educational opportunities to recognize connections between her characters' narcissistic symptomology and their own and, in so doing, to find relief from the associated psychological pain. |
