“Mirror, mirror on the wall”: narcissism reflexes in advertising

Abstract

This article discusses the relationship between advertising and narcissism, from the psychoanalytic theory, aiming to problematize the question of narcissistic suffering today. It aims to understand the influence of the social context in promoting or perpetuating psychological distress and the role of advertising in this context. To illustrate what is "sold" beyond the real product advertising, nine slogans were used. We conclude that the constant imposition of narcissistic unachievable ideal for advertising, in addition to a company with subjects that use narcissistic defenses as a way to protect themselves from instability and insecurity, generates a growing narcissistic disinvestment of objects and an increase of drives libidinal focused on the ego, resulting in what the psychoanalyst Green (1988) calls "narcissism of death”.

Keywords

• Narcisismo
• Publicidade
• Sociedade
• Sofrimento Psíquico