‘Listening to listening’:An approach to the study of narcissistic resistances (1981)

Psychoanalysis provokes in mankind a narcissistic wound, calling into question the illusion of the ego of being ‘master in its own house’ (Freud 1917b: 143). We naturally encounter some conscious productions corresponding to this illusion of the ego.And the ego resists accepting any knowledge likely to cast doubt on this illusion: Freud studies this resistance as an epistemological obstacle. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that this obstacle may be found inside the psychoanalytical process itself.