The Role of Narcissism in Moral Masochism

Excerpts from the analysis of three patients are presented to illustrate some genetic, dynamic, and economic aspects of narcissism in the genesis of moral masochism. They were children of a narcissistic parent or parents to whom they became ambivalently, helplessly dependent. The child's body attributes, ego functions,

and instinctual drives were in the service of the parental narcissism and immature instinctual drives. They were unable to differentiate the boundaries of their own egos from the influences of the important parent. Oedipal disappointment was dealt with in the same manner as the pregenital trauma of separation or loss—by introjection of the object and regressive splitting of object and self-representations with defusion of libidinal and aggressive feelings. The superego became the sadistic idealized parent-child while the ego became the hated devalued parent-child. In this endopsychic manner, the child-parent relationship is regressively restored. Masochistic relationships in adult life are repetitive re-enactments of such childhood experiences and fantasies in which the patient has the illusion that he actively controls the situations which he once passively endured.