ABSTRACT
The stage of ruthlessness or the paranoidschizoid position is the human condition as encountered by psychoanalysts in their consulting-rooms. It is the human condition in the microsocial environment and in the emotional environment. The essence of narcissism lies in an emotional refusal. Being emotional, this refusal is at the bedrock of the personality, and permeates all the decisions and action patterns of a lifetime. The hypothesis of primary narcissism is based on the belief that the infant is not object-related at the start of life. The classical theory of narcissism states that libido has taken its own self as love object. Narcissism is the decision to close off from the pain. In an analysis that aims at a cure of soul, a repetition of the original trauma arises again and again, and the individual has the opportunity to go down a different path. The prime aim of psychoanalysis is to change the inner state of the individual, to transform narcissism.
