ABSTRACT
The narcissistic regression in the analytic situation and the projections of the ego-ideal to which it gives rise are virtually universal. This chapter shows the importance of the concept of narcissism in the understanding of the analytic situation itself. It distinguishes the object-related and instinctual transference components from the narcissistic components. The chapter also shows that the analytic situation gives rise to a narcissistic regression that induces specific sensations and feelings: elation, the "end-of-session syndrome", and a particular cathexis of the analysis and the analyst whereby they often supplant the patient's religious and ideological interests, which have suddenly fallen by the wayside, so that the ego-ideal becomes projected onto the analyst. Sigmund Freud and many analysts after him conferred object status on religious phenomena, just as Freud stated narcissism in object terms in "Mourning and Melancholia". The child will be induced to replace the narcissistic trauma by an external prohibition, which is infinitely less wounding to his narcissism.
