Narcissistic Emptiness

Three factors elicit narcissistic emptiness and meaninglessness: first, the normal process of maturation in which one outgrows defensive aspects of the identity; second, the pressure of doing spiritual work and experiencing essential Presence, which tends to expose the relative unreality of the level of personality identifications; and third, working with the narcissistic transferences, that is, bringing to consciousness the object relations that have been supporting the more superficial sense of self and helping one to avoid the sense of emptiness. (The Point of Existence, pg 230)

Our observation is that this emptiness indicates the loss of the shell, the structure of self-identity, and its attendant feeling of identity. The emptiness is specifically the absence of the familiar identity. This also implies the loss of the internalized object relations that are part of the identity structure, but it is specifically and essentially the loss of the identity itself. (The Point of Existence, pg 330)

Narcissistic emptiness involves disconnection not only from the Essential Identity, but from Being as a whole. It is the absence of self-realization. It is the gap between our essential nature and who we take ourselves to be. It is the great chasm separating our experience in the conventional dimension of experience from the fundamental ground of the soul. It is the emptiness of narcissistic alienation itself. (The Point of Existence, pg 334)