The Origins of Narcissism

The Origins of Narcissism.

Psych. Pastor Hernandez Madrigal

Talk about narcissism us back to what Freud tells us "is conduct by which an individual gives his own body like a deal that would give the body of a sexual object, that is, sexual gratification looks at him, caresses and pampers, until thanks to these maneuvers reaches full satisfaction "(Freud: XIV: 71) is necessary to think that our own body is the object of satisfaction and also that" the libidinal complement to the egoism inherent instinct of self-preservation, the that a dose justifiably attributed to all living "(Freud, XIV :71-72).

Considering the above, we should consider what is the importance of the origin of all human narcissism?, Plus How does the formation of our mental life?, In this sense, it is clear that this reflection I elaborated from the analysis of the importance of the dual mother-child relationship in the early experiences of the child and its impact on the individual's mental training, it is important to emphasize that the first year of life is critical to healthy psychic structuring the life of the subject, within the parameters of "normality".

I chose this theme because it was personal challenges to understand Lacan's article on "The mirror stage as formative of the function of I (Je) as revealed in psychoanalytic experience" will return to start the analysis of the word IMAGE by Francoise Dolto, who says:

The notion of the word PICTURE is a word game in three parts:
 The I of Identity,
 The ma mom, whose representation is significant in shaping the image of the infant, and
 Gen, which has a meaning of land as the basis even of the body (Je) I, personal pronoun of the first person singular.
To clarify the concept of image, we can understand that the subject's identity is determined by the first relationship with the mother in building their body schema and the structuring of his ego.

Lacan interprets the self is linked to body image. The child sees your overall image reflected in the mirror, but there is a discrepancy between this global view of the shape of your body, which hastens the formation of the ego, and the state of dependency and powerlessness driving it is in reality.

From this perspective, the self is formed by the image of the other, in fact, the other represents a mirror. The mirror stage is located at the source of it self. It is in the image of the other, then, where the child will recognize, where you will receive your own desire. The self originates in the mirror, the other is a mirror, holding the narcissism is the order of language, symbolic order to arrange mediation between the self and the like. Body image is the top of the signifiers, and above all of the signifiers of the mother.

What is the ratio of the image in the mirror with narcissism?

It is understood that primary narcissism means love, the dyad and the dyad, or love at a state individual yet that I can be born later, represents a space of omnipotence that is created at the confluence of nascent narcissism the child and parents resurgent narcissism.

In the symbiosis that occurs with the mother-child, the child can not feel or experience any active love: The child is the subject of love, and good feelings all you need is the mother seeks. The child learns, unbeknownst to relate to a person. The infant is directly responsive to the intense experiences of the mother.

That is, narcissism is played from the ego ideal parent, is a deposition of parents, means rebirth and reproduction of narcissism of parents, primary narcissism is the ability to invest the baby, in their eyes, is when the baby sees his mother, sees two things, the pupils of his mother and his mother watching him. The baby will acquire the ability to represent his mother also through affective exchanges shared with her, in that dialogue synchronized and harmonized marking the affections bath in which the two participants living dialogues mimic many of and verbal sounds and the baby anticipates maternal behaviors.

Margaret Mahler will point out that the psychological birth of the individual in the separation-individuation process: establishing a sense of separation from a world of reality, and a relationship with him, particularly with regard to the experiences of the body and the main representative of the world as the infant experiences it, the primary object of love. Under this perspective, symbiosis describes as the condition of complete interdependence of the child and his mother, who acts as a protector, because the child lacks the ability to self-preservation, there is a complete fusion between child and mother.

It is recognized that the exclusivity of the mother-child relationship is proper to the first months of life of the child, the child's face is above all the face of it, we can say that the mirror image is constructed closely with primary narcissism, completely unconscious, the mirror image becomes the dialectic with the other, there is made to internalize the other. The fate reserved for children depends on the attitude of the adults, especially the mother.

Then we point out two main phases of narcissism primary narcissism, where there is the illusion that mother and son are self in that relationship and in that representation dyadic narcissism resurgent parents, where motherhood is conceivable that runs by the body, where the role of the mother's death (Freud), is to face his Oedipal conflict in identification with her own mother. Where the baby with the mother's eye sees itself, and this allows you to be able to represent body image, as it is recognized as a subject, wherein the look of the mother on the child gives elsewhere, the burden libidinal invest the baby in his eyes.

Secondary narcissism, which corresponds to the narcissism of the ego, it is necessary that there is a movement by which the cathexis of objects returns and invests the Self. Is defined as the libidinal investment of the self image, being the image formed by the self identifications to images of objects, that the self libidinal baby INVESTE.

When narcissism is wrong tied to the body, that is, if the base image through which the subject turns to his self is fragile, then there is the threat itself phobic state, then the phobia is the threat of dissociation weights based on the image of the body, or in your case, psychosis as a set of defensive processes that try to avoid suffering the grave danger that would mean the loss of the link between the "Image and Body", there is a risk of dissociation. For Melanie Klein, however, root and phobic structure derived esquizoparanoides primitive mechanisms.

The relationship between body schema and body image consists of large number of intricacies instinctual. The child by his vocabulary enters the culture, will be understood by others and will constantly unconscious body an image temporalized space in the relationship with the mother. The image is that. Body image is a word in the code from the image of the child's unconscious body. Decode body image required to agree with the other.

Back to the main question on the mirror stage as formative of the function of I, when the baby in a state of helplessness and motor incoordination, imaginatively anticipates domain apprehension and body unity. This unification imaginary identification is performed by the image of the other as a total, illustrated and updated by the actual experience that the child perceives his own image in a mirror.

In Lacan there is a predominance of the relationship with the image of such, the idea that the ego of the little human, particularly due to its biological prematurity, is formed from the image of his fellowman. This image is unconscious prototype electively characters that guides the way in which the subject apprehends others, is made from the first real and fantasized intersubjective relations with the family atmosphere, that image is substrate relational language, ie:
• The I is formed by the image of the other,
• It is linked to body image
• The self originates in the mirror
• The Other is a mirror
• What sustains narcissism is the order of language, symbolic order, to organize mediation between the self and the like.
• When the baby by identifying with an image that is not it, ends recognized by capturing the overall shape (Gestalt) of his own body, in the state of an external image of your body, integrate their own body image , is therefore decisive for the constitution of the subject.
• The human body does not exist prior to language but precisely because it is human body language.
• The mirror stage is the coordinator of the Real and the imaginary and the symbolic.

On this tour about the mirror stage and its relation to narcissism, I have tried to understand the dialectical relationship of these phenomena in the early structuring of the psyche and thus understand the development process from early age, especially in the first year of life , is iterative say that dyadic relationship, the libidinal investment of the mother to the child, the intervention of the other, that the eyes of others, confirms the picture that the child recognizes as its own, which allows the image to be viewed is only their presence. When this look is given a body, the world appears in figure-ground relationship with that body, be provocative look the look and be surprised, it will be strange. The body is then a gaze holding assembly, assembly and Real imaginary reality of the body.

Bibliography

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Dolto, Francoise (1987). Seminar child psychoanalysis. Mexico, Siglo XXI.

Freud, Sigmund (1914), Introduction to Narcissism, New York, Routledge.

Lacan, Jacques (1994). Writings 1. Mexico, Siglo XXI, ed.

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Psych. Pastor Hernandez Madrigal
• Professor of Higher Education in Public and Private Universities.
• Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.