Narcissism and object love as separate but dependent developmental lines.
The literature on the existence of a separate narcissistic line of development is reviewed. In contrast to both extreme points of view--the classical one, not recognizing any separate narcissistic line of development, designed by Freud and sustained by Kernberg, Mahler, and others, and the Kohutian one, claiming the separate independent existence of a narcissistic developmental line--there are various possibilities of intermediate solutions. I suggest that in the frame of reference of Anna Freud's concept of developmental lines, two separate but interdependent lines could be defined, one of object love and the other, rather than termed narcissistic, of introjective-egocentric characteristics. The development and the possible regression in the possible regression in the realm of both lines and dealt with and schematically laid out.
Kitron
D G
DG
D004532:Ego; D006801:Humans; D009289:Narcissism; D009769:Object Attachment; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory