Abstract

Classical addiction to drugs, alcohol, gambling, or to other compulsive behaviors provides the addict with an exoskeleton: boundaries, rituals, timetables, and order in an otherwise chaotically disintegrating universe. But there are addictions which serve as endoskeleton: they regulate the addict’s inner environment. The narcissist, for example, is addicted narcissistic supply to regulate his inner universe. Narcissists care little about the world out there, except as an ensemble of potential and actual sources of narcissistic supply. The narcissist's drug of choice attention is geared to sustain his grandiose fantasies and senses of omnipotence and omniscience.