ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a psychological reality. In all theoretical models within the psychoanalytic literature, narcissism occurs when the ego takes itself as erotic object or, to put it in classical Freudian terminology, when the libido takes its own self as love object. Margaret Mahler made the point that when an infant is born physically, it does not necessarily mean it has been born psychologically or emotionally. The emotional birth rests upon a choice. The narcissistic option leads to an appearance of unity, but underneath there is disunity. Although the formulation is different, it is along the lines of what Winnicott talks about, the true self and the false self. The person in the narcissistic situation spends a great deal of energy trying to look as if he were acting in a coherent way when in fact he is not. Friendship is a psychological reality that exists in two people, and yet it is not entirely contained in them.
