ABSTRACT
The chapter deals with primary identification as a mode of object finding, creating a metaphorical frame for the psychic representation of elementary drive phenomena. Drive-instinctual wishes and the pleasure principle are bound up with this configuration. On the other hand, its breakdown leads to a radical psychic trauma and the greatest conceivable helplessness. Annihilation anxiety warns us against the opening of these gates, thus acting as an utmost danger signal, safeguarding the pleasure principle and therefore the entire drive economy. The author represents case material to visualise the traumatic conditions prevalent outside the sphere of primary identification, and the recovery in the psychoanalytic treatment. This essay signifies a turning point in the author’s theoretical thinking. Many ideas developed later are discernible in this chapter.
