ABSTRACT
Fairbairn seldom used the term "narcissism" because he focused his clinical attention upon what he referred to as schizoid states, by which he meant states in which the ego was withdrawn into itself and not in contact with the external object. The foundation stone of all his theorizing was that libido was object-seeking. Freud said that libido is energy, a drive, seeking discharge through one of the erotogenic zones. Fairbairn is the only follower of Freud who discarded Freud's structural model: the ego, the superego, and the id. There is no id in his theory, just ego and object, and there are split-off parts of the ego. Frances Tustin has concentrated her attention on autistic states in children, and she has been remarkably successful in the psychotherapeutic treatment of autism. Kohut says that mental health comes about through the internalization of empathic selfobjects.
