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In this paper we examine a dream of the Marquis de Sade and a series of perverse fantasies from one of his major works, viewing them both as attempts to cope with narcissistic decompensation. We suggest that the public image of the Marquis de Sade is a manifestation
of a "delusional grandiose self," constructed in a restitutive attempt to recathect a traumatically disrupted childhood narcissistic self-object.