If you have ever been called self-absorbed, you can be sure you were not getting a compliment. Not only is the root definition of the term negative, but it is also saturated with unfavorable connotations. The concept is synonymous with self-preoccupied, self-centered, self-obsessed - and even egotistical and selfish. People who have the tendency to use more self-referential terms (I, me, myself) tend to have ...