2. Narcissism

To help you understand :

The Ego and Narcissism The notion of libido will be studied more deeply later, but for now, we will summarize it as being the energy that feeds and allows the proper functioning of the instances. We have already seen how the id commands his immediate "desires" and how the Ego tries to reach an acceptable compromise to both the superego and the id (ie to a satisfactory drive discharge). But to better understand the role of the self, we must consider it at the very beginning of its formation: when the libido has no external object on which to be discharged (as the id does not know the outside world) and therefore circulates only internally. In other words, the object of the id's desire is what will begin to construct the ego. This phenomenon is called "narcissism" but its definition is not the same as that commonly understood and that would associate it with a selfish character. On the contrary, narcissism is vital to the construction of the psyche and development of the ego as it will be the source of what might be called self-esteem or self-love. The ego develops very early on, we can consider that it presents itself in the first months of life, at a period when the child does not dissociate me and not me. In other words, even the mother, the breast, the bottle, the milk, the father's voice, the touch, etc. are not recognized as coming from an outside object (person) but rather from inner sensations. There are two schools of thought on narcissism: Freud and Melanie Klein. For Freud and those who followed him (Anna Freud, Mahler ..) the child's ego develops only tardily since it does not recognize the object (the mother) as a differentiated entity of himself before about 6 month of age. In other words, for the Freudians, the ego of the beginning of life is only very archaic and almost non-existent since it does not recognize the object (the mother). He describes two stages in this development linked to the notion of narcissism since it is the libidinal investment in the Self that develops it. These two phases are called primary narcissism and secondary narcissism. On the other hand, for Melanie Klein and the analysts who follow her, the ego already exists from birth because she believes that object relations (even if partial) is present very early on which allows the libidinal investment in the ego. This partial object, Klein describes as the good and the bad objects corresponds to the breast and its function - feeding (this can also be the bottle). The good object allows the child to feel satisfied as his needs (hunger) are being met. The bad object is when the child feels frustration, pain, anger, any negative sensation due to the absence of the breast. There are therefore two ambivalent feelings that can not be reconciled in the immature psychic apparatus, which will then create a "good" object and a "bad" object. To express this mechanism, we speak of "splitting". We see here that the infant is unable to apprehend the object entirely. That is to say, he does not have the perception of his mother as a person separate from himself but considers her solely according to internal sensations rather than an external reality. Klein uses the term "partial object" to express this idea. Jacques Lacan, speaks of the "mirror stage": where the child begins to be able to make the difference between Me and not Me. The child's perception of his reflection in the mirror actually indicates where his psychic development is in relation to his level of consciousness of himself. It is indeed a whole process before he can recognize himself in the reflection of the mirror which happens around 6 months of age. According to Aldo Naouri, pediatrician and psychoanalyst, it is precisely this awareness of Me / not Me that generates what he called "separation anxiety". Indeed, if the child understands that he is a separate person from his mother, then she is also separate from him. This concept of separation can become extremely distressing since it could lead to being abandoned and ultimately even death in the extent to which his survival depends on the presence of the mother. Pathology In this context, we can easily anticipate possible pathologies when, precisely, the abandonment (fantasized or not) of the mother will jeopardize the integrity of the psychic structure. Here we are talking about narcissistic pathologies. This type of pathology can be manifested when the relation of the mother to her child is dominant / dominated where there is no place for two differentiated beings. For example, the mother does not manage to get out of the fusional relation (perhaps by absence of the father whose role is to be the separating element) and thus does not favour this individuation. Let us also mention people who have a narcissistic personality structure and others who have a fixation or a regression (we will see further the details of these terms), to a normal infantile narcissism. This is called "narcissistic breach". Freud talks about: healthy narcissism when there is a balance between the investment of libido towards oneself and the investment of libido towards the other. pathological narcissism when either the libido is over invested in external objects (eg burn-out, depression, emotional dependence, ...), or the libido is over invested in the ego (delusion of greatness, idealized self, ...). Winnicott and the False Self: Here we will briefly discuss the notion of "false self”, according to the psychoanalyst D. Winnicott. In this pathology, the child responds to his mother's needs to an extent where he will only exist in the one objective to secure her love in fear of losing her. This reaction will inhibit the growth of his ego and make him dependant on other people's judgment and desires. This might happen in a context where the mother has not been able to accommodate the child in a "good enough" way. The development of a false self is then to be expected as a defence against the true self. Thus, the mother not being able to apprehend and to palliate to the anxieties of the child or unable to receive it, constitutes a true trauma considered to be the first disorganizing trauma of the psyche and resulting in narcissistic fragility, weak ego and an undefined sense of identity. For example, if the child is crying because he is hungry or has hurt himself and the mother reacts with aggression or anxiety (repeatedly), this would create a state of stress and anxiety that could lead to a pathological narcissism which results from a conflicted relation between the ego and its external objects along with excessive pressure from the superego which in turn, reduces the sublimation possibilities (beneficial discharge) of the ego. The reconstruction of the ego and narcissism is however quite possible in these cases through transference (the therapeutic relationship). It is in this relationship that the psychoanalyst will be assimilated and introjected as the idealized parental imago giving the analysand the possibility to "un-idealize" him.