Narcissism of Empire

"Simmons presents her thesis in a unique, cross-disciplinary way that will, I think, make it useful for readers who are interested in both psychological approaches to literature and in British imperialism -- without being specialists in the field. ... What Simmons does, that I don't think anyone else has yet done is to combine the basic framework of relational theories of narcissism with a simple, easily grasped overview of imperial culture, in an elegant style blessedly free of jargon. She thus cuts across these two fields of psychoanalytic and colonialist literary studies in a very accessible way." --Clarisse Zimra, University of Illinois at Carbondale "This is a remarkable account of the emotional inner world of the western imperialist. Simmon's scholarship is comprehensive, insightful, complex, and very intelligent." --Professor Marshall W. Alcorn Jr., George Washington University "Using the theories of Heinz Kohut, W. R. D. Fairbairn, and D. W. Winnicott, Simmons argues that her subjects were caught between triumphal and pessimistic imperialisms reflecting, respectively, the civilizing mission Britain proclaimed and racial/economic exploitation." --Choice

Diane Simmons teaches at the City University of New York Borough of Manhattan Community College, where she is an associate professor of English. Research for this book has been vetted in journals such as Psychoanalytic Review, and the Journal for the Psychoanalytic Study of Culture and Society, and an excerpt from the book was awarded the Heinz Kohut prize. Dr Simmons has published two previous monographs, Jamaica Kincaid and Maxine Hong Kingston, and is the author of two novels.

Loss, Rage and Revenge: The Narcissist's Needs; Thomas De Quincey: Dreams of China; Robert Louis Stevenson: Imperial Escape; Conan Doyle: The Curse of Empire; Rudyard Kipling: Black Sheep; Isak Dinesen: A Passion for Africans; Afterword: WTC, September 11; Indian "Mutiny", 1857 -- Two Studies in the Psychology of Embattled Superpower; Index.