In an original and provocative contribution, Chasseguet-Smirgel has extended Freud's theory of primary narcissism to the ego ideal and traced its effect on perversion, groups, falling in love, religion, art, and illusion. First among her bold theories is that the wish for reunion with the primary object has various, even antithetical, outcomes. For example, it is at the base of all perversions, and it propels the child through normal development; it accounts for the mindlessness of cults and mass phenomena, for religion and mysticism, and it affects the quality of art.

She also thinks that male defenses prevented Freud from understanding the full nature of the oedipal drama, that there is really no object at all involved in falling in love, that it is almost impossible for any one individual to test reality by himself, and that any religion with God the Father is preferable to either mysticism or to any religion that enshrines Jesus the Son.