Narcissism identification and primary identification?

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I read in a paper said Freud use the primary identification the same meaning of nacissism identification ,but Meissner (1970) clearly stated that narcissism identification is a kind of primary identification .It confuses me a lot? I go over works of Freud , can not find where the word primary identification first appeared? can anyone help me ?

-- michael li (jihua79946@sohu.com), June 03, 2004

Answers

Hi Michael, I am not a trained psychoanalyst, but in part because no one has answered your question yet, I will give it a try. First I want to say I respect Freud's psychoanalysis (and other theories coming from this tradition) as rich sources of useful psychological ideas. However, like many other experimental psychologists, I view all psychological concepts and theories with some skepticism, but try to keep an open mind. At some point in the evolution of an idea, I like to see relatively clear definitions and tight theories that are eventually carefully researched. I feel that while there have been a number of attempts to "translate" Freudian concepts into contemporary research terminology, and a number of experimental tests of Freudian theories, more research needs to be done (particularly experiments that can directly compare Freudian theories with other competing theories). Benjamin B. Wolman's Dictionary of Behavioral Sciences is a rich source of psychoanalytic definitions. He distinguishes between what he calls the normal defense mechanism of primary identification (starting with an infant trying to possess objects and people it loves, and eventually introjecting the traits of people it loves) versus the pathological secondary identification (usually occurring later in life as an attempt to "restore" someone who is lost or master an adversary). He does not define narcissistic identification, but defines primary narcissism (the situation during very early development when all of our love instinct is naturally invested in ourselves) and secondary narcissism (when later in life if our love is thwarted we may turn our libido back to ourselves). I hope this helps, or that someone who knows more about the subject will answer your question. Paul

-- Paul Kleinginna (pkleinginna@georgiasouthern.edu), June 06, 2004.

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