Mitchell presents a psychoanalytic study of Gatsby compiling evidence to characterize Gatsby as a pathological narcissist. Mitchell acknowledges Gatsby’s complex personhood throughout the novel, but makes clear that he will discuss Gatsby’s narcissism in exclusively clinical terms. Mitchell defines narcissists to have an inflated ego-ideal that becomes destructive from images of “perfection and omnipotence”. He defines these traits using reputable sources and compares these traits to Gatsby with direct quotations and paraphrasing. This characterization of Gatsby can be useful in discussing his entitlement, grandiosity, perfectionism, illusions, morals, and desire for Daisy. After extensively identifying Gatsby as a narcissist, Mitchell directly
