If you’ve ever been called self-absorbed, you can be sure you weren’t getting a compliment. Not only is the root definition of the term negative, but it’s also super-saturated with unfavorable connotations. As generally understood, the concept is pretty much synonymous with self-preoccupied, self-centered, self-obsessed—and even egotistical and selfish. Dictionaries (e.g., Dictionary.com/Random House/Collins English Dictionary) define self-absorption unappealingly as “preoccupied …