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Modern psychoanalytic theory offers two key proposals concerning the etiology of psychogenic illness. First, most emotional illnesses seen in practice today, including psychosis and other narcissistic disorders as well as neurosis, are caused by breakdowns in the maturational sequence. Usually these breakdowns are caused by the unsuccessful or incomplete resolution of one or more preoedipal stages-which forecloses successful resolution of the oedipal stage. Second, the blockage of the libidinal drive does not in itself cause the breakdown: rather the mobilization of excessive amounts of aggressive energy deflects the libidinal drives from their normal pathways to protect the object from this dangerous aggressive energy.
A more detailed explanation of how the transference and resistance are analyzed in both traditional and modern analysis may help the reader understand that modern psychoanalysis is an outgrowth of and a contribution to Freud's original conceptions. The advance in technique is especially valuable when dealing with narcissism, because Freud believed that other techniques or refinements would have to be developed to overcome this seemingly invincible resistance. Today modern psychoanalysis is investigating these other methods while staying