Freud's theory of infatuation, which is closely tied to the assumption of "primary narcissism," is compared with Plato's mythological interpretations of Eros (in Symposium and Phaedrus). In line with M. Balint and others, the author develops a concept of narcissism which differs from Freud's and Ferenczi's theory in that it avoids the solipsistic approach as well as the myth of paradise. (Narcissism presupposes the subject-object separation; the yearning of infatuation is not for the return to a condition of unity of subject-object already experienced, but for the realization of a wishful fantasy generated by the experience of separation.) Psychologically, the subject comes into being (at the same time as the object) on an experiential matrix in which this separation already exists "objectively," but not as yet for the experience of the subject about to be constituted.