A SURVEY THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PSYCHO-ANALYTICAL 1894-1926 BY JOHN RICKMAN TABLE OF CONTENTS PART II § 6. Narcissism (pp. 94-103) §7. The modification of the feeling of omnipotence (pp. 103-104). § 9. Melancholia (pp. 106-114). § 10. The super-ego (ego-ideal) (pp. 115–122). § 11. The death instincts (pp. 122-123). Narcissism1. § 6. In the detailed examination of the love-life, which was and to a great extent still is the main object of psycho-analytical study, one perversion among the numerous abnormalities observed stands out prominently by reason of its peculiarity-the patient is concerned only with himself, with his own beauty and charms. Rank 2 ascribed it to a special form of autoerotism more commonly found among homosexuals, and thought it presented a stage in development prior to puberty when the sexual impulse was on its way from autoerotism to object love. He also noted that it occurred in cases of disappointment in love (i.e. when frustrated by an external object, the love returned to the self) and that it subserved a 'rejuvenation tendency,' or at least a wish always to stay at the same age. These superficial observations, however, did not affect analytical theory, for it was not until 1914 that Freud's "On Narcissism: An Introduction "3 began the revolution in thought. The attention of psycho-analysts was here turned to the phenomenon or phenomena of narcissism, not so much because of the perverse aspects of this disorder of love-life in overt form, but because in milder degree it appears so frequently in neurotics. In this connection it comes specially to prominence 1 Vide Bibliog. 4, 6, 7, 10, 13, 16, 21, 111, 115, 117, 119, 120, 142, 143, 151, 176, 200, 204, 226, 251, 293, 294, 295, 397, 400, 467, 481. The first psycho-analytical paper on this subject is by Rank, "Ein Beitrag z. Narcissismus," 1911, Jahrbuch, Bd. II, 401. It is mentioned in the Schreber case, but not given special examination. The term was coined by Havelock Ellis, 1907. See Psychology of Sex, 1, p. 206, for case histories illustrating this tendency, also Sadger, Jahrb. vI, 311. 3 Jahrbuch, VI, pp. 1-24; Sammlung, IV. Gesammelte Schriften, VI, pp. 155-187; Collected Papers, IV, pp. 30-59. because it is a hindrance to progress in psycho-analytical work, that is in those cases where there is a preponderating amount of self-love or absorption in the self, it is observed that there is a diminished capacity for transference love to the physician. The theory that love can be shifted about from external objects to the ego and back again to objects had been put forward by Abraham in his papers on dementia praecox. If the charge of energy is directed to or upon the ego (the self) it is called ego-libido, if to objects in the outer world, object-libido; this does not imply a change in the essential character of the libido but only in its object. The reciprocity of ego- and object-libido is clearly seen not only in analysis but in the normal in cases of organic illness. In the condition of physical pain the patient relinquishes his interest in outside objects, his capacity for object-love diminishes and he becomes more selfish. Ferenczi1 goes so far as to say that the flow of libidinal energy to the site of injury may play a regular part in the healing of organic wounds; by this he does not mean that the libidinal energy is a substance but a quantity of something in the psychical system which energizes the presentation of the bodily part, and that this produces physical effects useful in healing. It is, in Ferenczi's term2, if I understand him correctly, a genitalization of the wound, probably associated with an increased vascularization or tumescence and accompanied by peculiar sensations. According to the theory of sexual development, at the final stage the libido is concentrated on the genital, which takes over the erotogenic functions of the other zones. Applying this notion to the case of organic illness we surmise that an explanation is now found for the 'desexualizing' influence of many bodily disorders, i.e. the libido has found a new distribution (within the self) and the sexual energy no longer clamours for genital expression (with an external object). It is no great step to include hypochondria in this scheme of libidinal distribution and to explain it as a concentration of the libido upon an internal organ, which thereupon becomes painful because of the impossibility or difficulty of erotic discharge (detumescence). If this be true we should find an inverse ratio between the liability to hypochondria and capacity for transference, i.e. we shall not find hypochondria prominently, if at all, in hysteria and obsessional neurosis (transference neuroses) but probably in prominence in dementia praecox, paranoia and manic-depressive disease, which are characterized by a diminished capacity for object-love3. What is the relationship between the narcissism of sexual perversion on the one hand and the phenomena of hypochondria and the self-centredness of organic illness on the other? At the root of them all lies an erotic activity in relation to the self, to the patient's own body or mind or personality; but this erotic activity is not autoerotic. The distinction at first appears to be a subtle one: in the earliest autoerotic activities of childhood the zones of the body have an autonomous character, they have no sexual object, no abiding relation to any person, they are simply to be described as stimulation of 1 "Disease- or Patho-neuroses," translated in Further Contributions to the Theory and Technique of Psycho-Analysis (London, 1926, Institute of Psycho-Analysis) and "The Acceptance of Unpleasant Ideas," idem, p. 375 (also in Int. Journ. of Psycho-analysis, VII, p. 320). "Disease- or Patho-neuroses," p. 85. This argument is worked out in detail in a paper by Ferenczi with the rather paradoxical title, "The Psycho-Analysis of a Case of Hysterical Hypochondria," Further Contributions to the Theory and Technique of Psycho-Analysis, chap. 10, and again in "Disease or Patho-neuroses." erotogenic parts of the body, and the stimulation of one zone does not lead to stimulation of all. When unification of the sexual impulse occurs the infant takes its own body as the loved object; something has been added to autoerotism to make narcissism, viz. unification of impulses and a love object. [It is possible that this unification is dependent on a certain degree of ego as distinct from libido development.] The word 'love' is usually taken to imply a certain relationship to another person, though the use of the term self-love is a warning against a too narrow interpretation. In ordinary usage this self-love is generally assumed to be of a non-sensual character, a 'Platonic' attitude to self in which, in the Freudian terminology, only aim-inhibited impulses are experienced. The manifestations of autoerotism have not escaped general observation but these have not been worked into the fabric of the individual love-life, in the first place because they have been (unwarrantably) assumed to be a phenomenon of adolescence and later life, and secondly, because they have been classed too much as wicked physical acts. Indeed the popular conception has erred -as it seems to the Freudian-in classing the phenomena of 'self-gratification' as physical, as reflex acts with no psychic participation, and those of self-love as psychical, ignoring the accompanying erotic element. In the perversion the erotic element in self-love is obvious for two reasons, first, there are physical manifestations of sexual activity, secondly, this form of gratification appears to take the place of erotic object-love. In normal persons there is often found not indeed this substitution of self-love for object-love but a mixture of the two; this is manifested in the choice of object taken as a lover1. To explain the psycho-analytical theory of narcissism it will be necessary to go into more detail than a survey would seem to warrant, but the importance of the hypothesis demands a full summary. The following account is a compilation from the literature, not taken from any one paper, but is a combination of many, but the writer believes it to represent a correct and coherent summary of widely held views. The development of the adult libidinal organization can be traced far back by observation, though not quite to its beginnings; hypotheses are needed to bridge some gaps in the early stages. In making these there is no pretence that they are based on observation, they are assumptions made for the purpose of establishing certain starting points, and they will for brevity be put as dogmatic statements. In the womb the child has no object relationships, its ego-needs are provided, nourishment, warmth and an absence or minimum of stimulation, in a word, there is little for the psychical apparatus 1 A person may make a choice of love object: (I) According to the narcissistic type: (a) What he is himself (actually himself) [e.g. a person of the same sex, occupation, race, etc.]. (b) What he once was [e.g. a child, youth, an 'innocent,' etc.]. (c) What he would like to be [i.e. an ideal of himself, a leader, hero, a person specially endowed with some outstanding attribute of strength, intellect, virtue, etc.]. (d) Someone who was once part of himself [e.g. a child of his body-especially strong in the case of women]. (II) According to the anaclitic type: (a) The woman who tends [e.g. mothers, nurses, etc.]. (b) The man who protects [e.g. father substitutes, princes, soldiers, etc.]. Table taken from Freud's "On Narcissism: An Introduction," Collected Papers, IV, p. 47. Notes in square brackets are added by the present writer. to do, for this apparatus only acts when stimulated. Libidinal impulses may exist, if they do, the probable outlet for discharge is by general muscular movements (the late Dr Hug-Hellmuth, verbal communication). After birth there are definite and strong ego-needs, those of self-preservation. The assumption is that there is libidinal pleasure attaching to the act of self-preservation (sucking), and that this fusion of instincts is made possible by an erotogenic property of the mouth zone. The erotic property of any of the zones is comparable to an itching (a phenomenon of which practically nothing is known), and as with any other itch appropriate stimulation relieves the 'tension.' Whether the 'itching' is a state of tumescence, or a state of excitability in the nerve endings, or something else, is not known, and for the present purpose is immaterial, but it is (a) localized, (b) periodical, (c) relieved by stimulation of an appropriate kind. The assumption is made that the persistence of the recurring excitability is due to the erotic part of instinctual life, i.e. it is a component of the sex-instinct, in this case centred in the mouth. In this way sucking may be regarded as a sexual activity but there is not at first a sexual partner, or rather the other person (mother, nurse) is not perceived as an object of erotic desire1. The sucking relieves the local erotic excitability without an accompanying love relation to the outer world, it is autoerotic. But this is only for the first days or weeks of life. The stages to object-relationship are imagined to be as follows: At first the nipple is not conceived by the baby as an external object but as a part of the self2; when the itch-sensation or whatever it is occurs, it is relieved by stimulation from a solid object, the tongue, the thumb or the nipple, the last alone having the power to eliminate at the same time the craving of hunger which belongs to the self-preservative instincts. Smelling is probably at an early date related to the activity at the nipple, this is the prototype of all intellectual activity (Ferenczi) in that an early discernment is made through it of what will be satisfying-nipple distinguished from 'comforter,' etc. Visual perceptions play a part, too, but less than smell at first, perhaps because babies are often fed in the half dark and are usually muffled up. Thus there are three groups of sensory stimuli, buccal-tactile and taste, visual, and olfactory, associated with the presentations from the outer world, and two groups of presentations from within, the instinctual 'needs' of self-preservation and those of the libido. Just as the baby does not at first distinguish the nipple from itself, so it is quite possible it does not recognize the discomfort of hunger as belonging to itself. It builds up an elementary system of thought processes on the pattern of Pleasurable-Not-pleasurable, and associates the pleasurable with those parts of itself which furnish the pleasure. It is possible on this line of argument that a sucked thumb may be at one time regarded as part of the Pleasure-Self series, when it temporarily satisfies libido, and at another time as part of the Not-pleasurable (not-self) series, when it fails to satisfy the hunger. This is, of course, a concept of the self as a body-self, a bodily attribute, not the socialized self-conscious part of the self which later comes into great prominence. 1 The nipple is the nearest conceivable thing to an object to a child in the first days of life, its smell and tactile qualities doubtless exert an 'attraction' but for reasons to be given later it is not an external object in the psycho-analytical meaning of the term. * Urine is an object external to the body to a physiologist but is consciously regarded by many adults as an internal object, part of themselves, till voided-it is necessary to gain, or regain, a psychological view of the elementary bodily processes in order to follow these theories. Med. Psych. VII 7 Other zones than the mouth are endowed with this kind of erotism, in each case the problem of the relation of zone to stimulating object is a special one; e.g. the anal zone (which includes the lower part of the rectum) is stimulated by the faeces, to which it reacts by peristaltic movements reflexly, the genitals are stimulated by friction in washing, etc. at an early date, later by friction of the hand. These zones are 'charged' or cathected with libido, and the 'itching' so produced leads to the organism's orienting itself to the outer world, in order, so to speak, that it may be scratched. Now one part of the body, now another, lays claim to the pathways of motility for this purpose; but the zones though autonomous have some intercommunication, i.e. the stimulation of one excites the erogenicity of the others1. The presentation of the self is distinguished from that of an outer object by three features, first, its continuity, second, the confluence of pleasurable experiences in different parts, and lastly, a certain immediacy in pleasurable experiences. The outer world includes what is the contrary of these, namely, what is impermanent, lacking in confluence of pleasurable experience, and immediate only in relation to painful experience (what is not pleasurable, is not a Me-part of experience). While this process is going on in regard to immediate personal experiences the ego activities of self-preservation are testing the outer world in their fashion, sorting out the visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile memory images into those combinations which recur with pleasurable results and those which do not. Thus on both sides, the bodily or erotic and let us say the intellectual, the inner and outer world is being tested by the touchstone of pleasure; just as the erotic impulses 'leaned on' the egoistic (the self-preservative) in the first place, so the egoistic were stimulated particularly by the erotic in the early days. What was pleasurable physically was memorable a state of affairs from which no one entirely escapes. These two things have to be brought together and compared, first, the peculiar way in which erotic excitations pass or overflow from one zone to another, thus linking up the presentations of bodily erotism in different parts of the body by temporal association, and second, the character of the intellectual activity that combines presentations according to features which persist in spite of superficial complexities, e.g. the power of recognizing the whole from a part or number of parts. The former is a contribution from psycho-analysis, the latter is not in the field of psychoanalysis at all but of general psychology. So it comes about that there are in the early days of mental life two Weltanschauungen, a libidinal one almost wholly controlled by the pleasure-principle, and an egoistic one guided to some extent by pleasure yet also responsive to the dictates of the unchanging outer world. In the former case the criterion is that the object shall be a source of pleasure (in which case it is included in the category of pleasureobjects and is introjected, forming a part of the Pleasure-Ego), in the latter case that it shall have a constant set of features; in the former the pleasureobjects (owing to the overflow of excitations above mentioned) become more and more closely associated with the body as a whole. Taking the former feature as a starting point of further speculation, it is apparent that the increasing experience of confluence of erotic excitation from the zones together with an increasing experience of the body from tactile stimulation must engender a conception of the bodily ego as a unified organism of firmer structure than presentations from the outer world, but the boun1 "After being at the breast the infant generally empties its bladder: there are therefore connections." Staercke, Int. Journ. of P.-A. 11, p. 190. |