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(Accepted for publication 8 May 2018)
This article reviews the importance of the double for the integration of narcissism and the formation of the Self. A brief review of Freud's articles On Narcissism and The Uncanny serves as a starting point for reflection on the narcissistic double.
The article On Narcissism uses the myth of Narcissus as reference. With regard to the uncanny, it demonstrates the frequent appearance of the double in literature and in certain intensive regressive states, or the disorganization of the Self, along with the disturbing relationship between the familiar and the uncanny.
Subsequent contributions from contemporary authors, such as de M'Uzan, have developed this concept within normal evolution and pathological formations.
The concept of the mirroring object has been theorised by different authors such as Lacan, Winnicott, and Kohut, among others, pointing out the importance of the object in the formation of the subject, and the ways of mirroring transference in the analyses of this type of narcissistic functioning, along with the associated technical difficulties.
The function of the internal and external frame is considered to be a third necessary for (re)constructing the triangulation. One clinical case illustrates some transference-countertransference difficulties in these cases.