Freud's Developmental Approach to Narcissism: A Concise Review

Freud's thinking regarding the role of narcissism in infantile development evolved through three distinct stages. During the first period (1909–1914) he described a sequence of three stages: auto-erotism, narcissism and object-love. In one work during this period he divided the third stage into a stage of homosexual object-choice followed by a stage of heterosexual object-choice. During the second period (1915–1923) he abandoned the idea of a stage of auto-erotism and eventually described a stage of primary narcissism—referred to as the stage of the original reality ego—followed by the stage of the purified pleasure ego and a semi-narcissistic anal-sadistic stage. This re-orientation involved a re-definition of narcissism in terms of illusions of self-sufficiency. During the third period (1923–1939) Freud considerably expanded his view on the

narcissistic dynamics of the oral phase in terms of primary identification, defensive secondary identification and finally relinquishment of the breast as a part of the self. The phallic phase was also added. Any discussion of Freud's theory of narcissism must take the evolution of his position into account.