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In this volume, Rothstein argues against the necessity for replacing Freud's structural hypothesis by a radically new model of
the mind. He believes that if we take an evolutionary perspective about the development of mental structure, we will have little dificulty in integrating new data with traditional metapsychology. For instance, we may consider that the child is capable of intrand intersystemic conflict concerning oral and anal sadistic urges without supposing that the conflicts have any relation to those of the phallic-oedipal stage of development. Both ego and superego may be seen as continually developing with roots in the distant past.
This is a fascinating book that should be of special interest to modern analysts because of the emphasis it places on narcissistic injury in the genesis of symptoms, dreams and character disorders. Rothstein equates narcissism with the felt quality of perfection, and narcissistic injury with its loss. He believes that the loss of the self-object bliss of the symbiotic phase is an insult from which few of us ever recover. He draws attention to Freud's idea (in Beyond the Pleasure Principle) that, prior to the establishment of the pleasure principle, the function of dreams is to assimilate traumas that have overwhelmed the stimulus barrier. Rothstein notes that the immature, psychic apparatus is organized beyond the pleasure principle, and that therefore many dreams reflect attempts to assimilate the narcissistic injuries of the dream day—injuries which resonate with the unassimilated narcissistic injuries of childhood. More evolved parts of the ego, pursuing the pleasure (or reality) principles, still have to struggle with archaic counterparts organized beyond the pleasure principle.
In a chapter devoted to understanding how the masochist fits into this evolutionary perspective, Rothstein suggests that the young child's perception of the mother as enraged or sadistic is a profound narcissistic injury. One from of defense agai