Diversion Neurosis

The “diversion” neurosis (névrose d'intendance) consists in diverting the libidinal trend of a neurosis (conversion hysteria, anxiety hysteria, obsessional neurosis) in favour of a struggle against narcissistic wounds. Its symptomatology is based on that of neurosis exploited for narcissistic ends that are identifiable by the psychic pain and fatigue stemming from the wound itself. It is no longer only a matter of the neurotic expression of an oedipal conflict, but of an economic struggle for psychic and somatic integrity.

In the classical neuroses, the oedipal conflict exposes the ego to contradictory demands. The returns of the repressed, veiled resurgences of incestuous and murderous wishes, result from libidinal pressure with a constant flux of charge, characteristic of a repetition-compulsion. Thanks to this energy, the neuroses nourish actualisations of hate and love with objects of substitution specific to each one of them. The struggle, both exciting and co-exciting, for the conquest of the object, which often has to be repeated over and over again, is played out in the ego that is subject to the demands of reality, to the inextinguishable wishes of the id, and to the dangers of the superego. In spite of the repetitive aspect of the vicissitudes of this secondary defensive struggle linked to the oedipal conflict, the substitutive and temporary satisfactions contribute largely to the fluctuations in self-esteem, that is, to the subject's secondary narcissism. A portion of the libidinal energy engaged in these conflicts can, however, be desexualised thanks to a few more or less stable renunciations. The desexualised narcissistic libido has a fundamental aim: binding. The more narcissistic libido one has, the more it is possible to create links, both for coping better with the hazards of everyday life and for sublimatory aims.

In the case of a significant trauma, the signs of which are psychic or physical pain and a loss of self-confidence, narcissistic libido is