(1964). Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 12:522-528 Narcissism and the Prepuberty Ego Ideal IN HIS classic paper, "On Narcissism" (5), Sigmund Freud proposed a new theory, that the object of libido is originally the self, or partial representations of the self, that this is the original libidinal investment in infancy, and that recognition of this has important relevance to the understanding of schizophrenia, hypochondria, and other important mental problems. At this time Freud went so far as to distinguish primary narcissism, the original state of "autoerotic" sensory pleasure without object representations, from secondary narcissism, the libidinal cathexis of later mental representations of the body and the self. This was a beginning, a very important beginning, a hint from the master, which Freud did not himself pursue a great deal further, nor did he fully reveal how important the understanding of the details of the development of narcissism would eventually become. During the intervening fifty years, since Freud's classic paper in 1914, it has become self-evid [This is a summary or excerpt from the full text of the book or article. The full text of the document is available to subscribers.] |
