Examined the empirical relationship between narcissism and selfesteemin an attempt to evaluate competing conceptualizations of narcissism. Participantswere 236 children (mean age 11.3 years) in the fourth through eighth grades. Counter toearlier conceptions, which characterized narcissism as very high self-esteem, narcissismand self-esteem were slightly negatively correlated. Also, narcissism predicted severaladjustment variables, including aggression. None of these relationships was mediated byself-esteem. Lastly, self-esteem moderated the relationship between narcissism andaggression in boys. Taken together, these lines of evidence point to a newconceptualization of narcissism, modeled after self-discrepancy theory, in whichnarcissism is conceptualized as grandiosity in the ideal self. Implications of this proposaland directions for future research are discussed.