ABSTRACT
Heinz Kohut's explanation of narcissistic anxieties is always set, essentially, in terms of psychoeconomic threat: the destabilising potential of narcissistic energies, sensations and images which have not been moderated, harnessed, socialised and integrated into the ego through the transmuting crucible of selfobject experiences. To understand the diagram requires consideration of a number of unique concepts introduced by Kohut. At the time of the publication of The Analysis of the Self, Kohut placed his model of narcissism within a classical, essentially Freudian and ego-psychological framework. Kohuf's crucial postulate of a separate line of development for narcissism was first presented in his 1966 paper, 'Forms and Transformations of Narcissism'. The development of structure takes place, according to Kohut, by means of repeated internalisations of function, in response to the parent's or analyst's failure as selfobject. Kohuf's theory of narcissism, as outlined in 1971, is unique.
