'In many persons a repression is perceived narcissistically as a blow to their omniscience, which they try to repair through real or magical means. It also happens that later any insult to narcissism, whether in the field of knowledge

or in other fields, evokes as a response an assertion of omniscience or a setting into play of the investigatory impulse in an attempt to recapture the sense of omniscient perfection. The magical methods used vary…' This thesis is convincingly demonstrated in two case histories. The consequence is an irrational attitude toward knowledge because the omnipotence necessary for narcissistic stability might be endangered. There are certain phenomena within and without neuroses which show that belief is a partial omniscience.

Lewin has clarified a very common narcissistic attitude which is important for the understanding of certain neurotic patterns of behavior.