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Through the analysis of conversational interaction and clinical notes, this article develops conceptual linkages between the Goffmanian concept of face and the psychoanalytic and psychiatric understandings of narcissism. Self-cathexis—the investment of libidinal emotion to the image of self—is a key issue both for Goffman and in psychoanalytic studies of narcissism. For Goffman, the self and its cathexis are inherently fragile interactional achievements, whereas for psychoanalysts such as Kernberg and Kohut, they are relatively stable intrapsychic structures. An application of Goffman’s theory to narcissistic personality disorders suggests that pathological narcissism involves the isolation of the person’s self-image from interactional practices and a consequent inability to benefit from face work in ordinary social encounters. Clinical experience suggests revisions to the theory of face work: there is a biographical continuity in a person’s experience of face, and successful participation in face work is made possible by the psychic capacity of playful orientation to one’s own and others’ narcissistic illusions. Such playful orientation is manifested through the interactional practices of role distancing
