Narcissism: From the Origins to the Nineteen Fifties

From the very outset, the introduction of the term narcissism in the Freudian vocabulary seems to be marked by the theoretical discussion that was already taking place and to be understood in two senses: the instinctual, which was already fully developed and the structural, which was beginning to take shape just then. From the instinctual point of view, the concept of narcissism came to signify an intermediate phase of libidinal development placed between autoeroticism and object choice, in which the individual takes himself, i.e. his own body, as his love object; this narcissistic phase continues during the subsequent object stage in which the individual initially chooses an object whose genitals are similar to his own — in short, a homosexual choice . But the term narcissism had already been used (Freud 1905 and 1910a) in precisely this sense with predominantly structural connotations; that is to say, with reference to a stable, permanent modification of the personality in relation to a homosexual type of object choice. This is the well-known process that enables the individual to give up his love for his mother by identifying with her, by putting himself in her place,