On Narcissism is a 1914 essay by Sigmund Freud, widely considered an introduction to Freud's theories of narcissism. In this paper, Freud sums up his earlier discussions on the subject of narcissism and considers its place in sexual development. Furthermore he looks at the deeper problems of the relation between the ego and external objects, drawing a new distinction between the 'ego-libido' and 'object-libido'. Most importantly he introduces the idea of the 'ego ideal', and the self- observing agency related to it. Freud also looks briefly at his controversies with Carl Jung and Alfred Adler, indeed one of his motives for writing this was probably to show that the concept of narcissism offers an alternative to Jung's non-sexual 'libido' and Adler's 'masculine protest'.
Famous quotes containing the word narcissism:
“Our ego ideal is precious to us because it repairs a loss of our earlier childhood, the loss of our image of self as perfect and whole, the loss of a major portion of our infantile, limitless, ain’t-I-wonderful narcissism which we had to give up in the face of compelling reality. Modified and reshaped into ethical goals and moral standards and a vision of what at our finest we might be, our dream of perfection lives on—our lost narcissism lives on—in our ego ideal.”
—Judith Viorst (20th century)