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This discussion of early identifications revived or persisting in the structure of the later superego begins with the distincton between the superego, which results from the breakdown of the Oedipus complex, and the ego ideal, a more narcissistic earlier structure based on the child's identification with a glorified parental figure—an identification that served to undo the child's feelings of weakness. These early identifications are not always completely integrated into the ego and may lead not to transformation of the personality but only to a longing to be like the idealized parent. These longings must be described as ego ideals. The ego is measured against them and self-esteem depends on the distance between them and the ego. Only if the ego is well developed does this measuring result in attempts to realize these ideals.
The origin of accentuated narcissistic ideals is twofold. The first origin is sudden threats to narcissistic intactness. For example, strong castraton anxiety may lead to withdrawal of libido from the object and its concentration on the ego. The development of grandiose ideals now serves to ensure phallic intactness and for this purpose early identifications with parents who appear grandiose are revived. The second origin is the persistence throughout childhood of the early identifications that supported the child's feeling of adequacy and that are normally transient and changing, developing slowly into permanent ones.
Pathologically the parental image may not become reduced to real proportions and the overvaluation of the object then serves as a means of achieving otherwise unreachable magnificence for the own ego. In more pathological cases the primitive