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I am very grateful to André Lussier for his excellent and profound discussion of my paper (Chasseguet-Smirgel, 1974). A discussion such as his is extremely gratifying to an author. Unfortunately I cannot respond to all the issues that he has so judiciously raised (1974). This is not only because of the limits imposed on length, but also because of the complicated nature of the subject. Lussier has drawn attention to some aspects of the problem which require an elaboration which I am not sure of actually being able to undertake at present. I hope he will forgive me for being fragmentary and partial (although I will hopefully avoid the extremes of Balzac's Chef d'oeuvre inconnu). André Lussier (1974) has revealed a great familiarity with French psychoanalytical literature, and it is perhaps not inconceivable that, since the last International Congress in Paris, he has had the opportunity to read my paper to the 33rd Romance Languages Congress on the Ego Ideal(1973), in which I develop certain aspects of the paper I gave at the International Congress (1974). I would be very happy to discuss my point of view in relationship to that put forward by Lussier.
First, a few words about 'narcissistic injury'. Grunberger suggests (1956), (1966), (1971) that the incest taboo, considered to be the father's doing, is important because it safeguards the little male (who is incapable of fulfilling his oedipal desire in reality) from narcissistic injury—he is thus able to transform a necessity into a virtue, so to speak. I have an inkling that the child's so-called ignorance of the vagina enjoys the same narcissistic roots. Of course, this in no way excludes the instinctual (oral and anal) root of this 'ignorance'. Horney has already raised the issue of the child's infantile feeling of inferiority to the mother as being a part of the male's 'dread of women' (1932), and a part of his 'denial of the vagina' (1933).
The most terrifying fantasies can disguise or even alleviate n