ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the further development of psychoanalytic theory after the original id-oriented period but prior to the structural point of view. The period in the development of psychoanalysis was devoted to the study of the "transference neuroses": the conversion hysterias, phobias, and obsessive-compulsive neurosis. A transitional period occurred in which new discoveries were made about narcissism and the psychoses. Freud became interested in a group of clinical phenomena that could not be explained in terms of transference. In the case of melancholia, Freud theorized that the fixation point is intermediate between objectless narcissistic strivings and object interests. Hence Freud's concept is that the object loss in depressions is specifically the loss of a love object chosen on the basis of identification-a narcissistic object choice. Clinical symptoms of anxiety or hypochondria may occur in either a neurotic or psychotic structure. The archaic ego attempts to ward off dangers by magical means-for example, by isolation, undoing, and ritual.
