A survey of the religious and psychological literature on glossolalia ("speaking in tongues") reviews the various ways that have been used to try to understand this fascinating practice. At the present time an impasse has been reached: glossolalists can no longer be viewed as suffering from psychopathological disorders or from sociological deprivation. Insights derived from the psychology of the self and narcissism, as presented in the works of Heinz Kohut and D.W. Winnicott, are used to suggest new approaches to understand glossolalia.