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The author presents conclusions drawn from study of Proust's life and works.
1. Proust's asthma was a direct reaction to the loss of a loved object, his mother. Secondarily, it was a means of gaining her back. 2. His jealousy—at times he was almost paranoid—shows his homosexual fixation, expressed as 'bad impulses' toward the object. The homosexual object was split, because his image of his mother was likewise split, into good and bad objects. 3. His phobias and obsessions were a defense against deep feelings of depression. They were an attempt to control and dominate the loved object in an anal way (with money) or orally (by food fads). They also protected him against being abandoned. 4. His depressive tendencies were countered by a mechanism resembling that of hypomania, with use of drugs and alcohol. Narcissistic libidinal gratification was permissible only after the mother had been introjected; Proust could then gratify his scoptophilic and exhibitionistic wishes by his famous pastiches and vivid imitations. 5. All his defenses arose from the loss of a loved object and from death wishes probably experienced when he witnessed a primal scene.
These conclusions have recently been corroborated by Proust's descriptions of introjection and identification in his letters and stories.