|
|
TITLE: LIFE NARCISSISM,
DEATH NARCISSISM
|
|
|
TITLE: LIFE NARCISSISM,
DEATH NARCISSISM
|
| DESCRIPTION: The reawakening of
interest in narcissism in psychoanalytic theory comes at an appropriate
moment for the publication of this collection of mostly hitherto untranslated
texts, all centred on one of the most enigmatic questions in psychoanalysis.
After introducing the concept of narcissism in 1914, Freud was to lose
interest in it when he undertook the theoretical reshaping (begun around
1920) which gave rise to the final theory of drives (opposition of the
life drives and the death drives), the second topography of the psychical
apparatus (Id-Ego-Superego) and his new conception of anxiety. After a
period of neglect, this concept though apparently re-discovered in America
had, in fact, never been forgotten in French psychoanalysis. André Green,
who has been pursuing this problem with interest since 1963, is one of
the rare authors, if not the only one, who has attempted to link the theory
of narcissism with Freud's final theory of drives. While narcissism is
generally only considered in terms of its positive aspects in which it
is linked to the life drives, Green shows that it is necessary to postulate
the existence of death-giving narcissism, which he calls negative narcissism.
Unlike the former, which aims at achieving ego unity, the latter strives,
on the contrary, to abolish it, aspiring to reduce desire to the level
zero. This theory of narcissism is illustrated by the exposition of a
certain number of forms of narcissism met with in clinical practice, of
which the "dead mother" is one of the most widely encountered. Finally,
in a study of the ego, Green draws attention to the duplicity underlying
its structure, in the contradiction between knowing that one is mortal
and believing oneself to be immortal - all of which conjures up the mystical
figure of Narcissus Janus.
|
