One who loved to see himself as saint initially incurs ragging (9)
I believe the answer is:
narcissus
'one who loved to see himself' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how they can define each other.
'as saint initially incurs ragging' is the wordplay.
'saint' becomes 's'.
'initially' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'ragging' indicates an anagram (I've seen 'ragged' mean this).
'as' after 's' is 'sas'.
'sas'+'incurs'='sasincurs'
'sasincurs' with letters rearranged gives 'NARCISSUS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for narcissus that I've seen before include "In Greek myth, youth in love with his reflection" , "Self-centred youth" , "Self-regarding youth" , "bloomer" , "Legendary egotist" .)