ABSTRACT

S. Freud's theory has a built-in tension and ambiguity between a developmental and a structural concept of narcissism. Lacanian theory converges with the prevailing intersubjective theory of narcissism and Lacan, in fact, may have been one of its precursors. This chapter suggests the existence of further structural differentiations within narcissism generated by the establishment of the ego-ideal and of the symbolic function of the father. The ego ideal refers to an imaginary identification with the father, the empty subject refers to the function of the symbolic father as an empty symbolic function without a name or image but still a function, nonetheless. The ego is closely linked to the partial object that was involved in the experience of satisfaction, and that later will function as the object of the sexual drive. The perception of the ideal ego of the total bodily ego comes before and mediates the perception of the real image of the mother's total body.