navel-gazing

directing it inwards leading to a disorded navel-gazing preoccupation with personal goods in isolation absent proper harmonious relations leading to violent disruption of balance with others.

She also points out that evocative and emotional genres of autoethnography have been criticized by mostly analytic proponents for their “ lack of ethnographic relevance as a result of being too personal .” As she writes, they are criticized “ for being biased, navel-gazing, self-absorbed, or emotionally incontinent, and for hijacking traditional ethnographic purposes and scholarly contributions ” ( Maréchal, 2010, p. 45 ).

However, phrases such as " contemplating one's navel " or " navel-gazing " are frequently used, usually in jocular fashion, to refer to self-absorbed pursuits.