Narcissism in the interpretation of Sigmund Freud

Today the idea and perceptive of narcissism orbits from deep interest. And admiring oneself to a sense of entitlement to selfishness. Freud, however, “On Narcissism:An Introduction(1914),” he explains narcissism its relation to libidinal development. And the way it relates to the role in the psycho sexual individual development. Freud Sigmund, the founder of Psychoanalysis, in his Freudian theories introduces the concept of narcissism. In his psychoanalysis, he explores the psycho sexual stages of child development which is human beings from birth posses an instinctual libido that develops into five stages.

The stages are; Oral stage which is dominated by the ID, the anal stage where Ego is formed, the phallic stage where superego emerges, latency stage which is a phase of sexual repressio , andd the genital stage where the sexual feelings re-emerge. Freud introduces the term libido is used to describe the energy created by survival and sexual instincts. Freud Stated that the libido is the part of ID and the driving force of all behavior. Freud defines narcissism as adoration that one accords themselves in light of them being an object of sexual desire. To him, Narcissism as somef neurosis. As the child grows up they tend to be more egocentric that they will tend to want things and people to themselves alone. Simply because they get a totall attention from the mother. Growing up as things begin to change so does the child tend to shift the thinking he or she had beeng the center of attention as it tends to decrease.

This type of Narcissism he Freud called it Primary narcissism, where now the motherly love and affection they receive when they are young is expressed by the mother. This is now related with the ego libido.the ego libido is the concentration on one self. With time, the ego becomes more packed with the libido energy since it has been accommodated for quite some time and thus the energy tends to be directed to an object of love. This is when there is a differentiation between the sex instinct , andd the ego instincts. Thus, The libidinal energy as the child grows up tends to be shifted outwards to an object which can be referred to as ‘object libid .”. And this too needs to be reciprocated failure to which the libidinal energy tends to go back to ego once again.

Therefore, the libido invested in the ego which is auto-erotic can invest in objects which is the object libido and can also lead to character fixation and regression. This in turn results to extreme neurotic self-love, boosting the self-esteem thus reciprocation of the Secondary narcissism which is mainly focused on the object love, can also be described as pathological regression to the primary narcissism. Consequently, self-esteem is weighed against the satisfaction of this ego ideal. How much self-esteem one has then depends on how much affectio , andd love they are able to derive from the object of their desire. If object-libido is projected outwards without reciprocity, it can lead to low self-esteem. Freud’s view of narcissism therefore has both verve and harm Freudd’s conclusion is that in giving love to other , peoplee often forget about themselves.

They tend to think that the world is unworthy of their love as it is not reciprocated Consequentlyy, they might begin to adapt to self-improvement because they will have trauma that willsl blocks libidinal energy toward the outside object Thereforee, for success, there must be a balance between the primary narcissism which is primarily based on the ego instincts with the secondary narcissism which is the object love

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