The article presents an analysis of the main psychoanalytic approaches to the problem of parental narcissism. The author uses Freudian and post-freudian ideas to clarify the importance of parental narcissism in the parent-child relationship and in the development of the child’s own narcissism. According to psychoanalytic theories, a parent with a healthy narcissism will have a cohesive sense of their own identity, which will be expressed through the ability to differentiate between their own narcissistic needs and the narcissistic needs of the child. The inability of the parent to make this differentiation will make him delegate to the child his own unfulfilled desires and narcissistic fantasies.