Aspects of narcissism and symbiosis, or, essential neurosis of twins.
Following a brief introduction I address the relationships of twins from five different perspectives: the Intimate Connection, the Mirror Image and Complementarity, Object- and Self-Representation, Self and Object or Rivalry, and Intersubjective Communication. This approach attempts to understand twin relationships and the individual development of twins in terms of their intense mutual dependence, akin to infantile symbiosis, and in terms of narcissism. In their similarity to each other, twins may choose each other as love objects even as they see themselves in the other. That is, a twin may "love what he himself is" or "someone who was once part of himself." This "type of object-choice … must be termed 'narcissistic'" (Freud, 1914, pp. 90, 88). Such "cathexis of an undifferentiated self-object" is considered to be "primary narcissism" (Burstein, 1977, p. 103). Hoffer (1952) describes primary narcissism as "the lack of all qualities discriminating between self and not-self, inside and outside" (p. 33).
c.kahn@rcn.com
Charlotte
C
Kahn
D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D003858:Dependency, Psychological; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D005619:Freudian Theory; D006801:Humans; D008149:Love; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009289:Narcissism; D009497:Neurotic Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D009769:Object Attachment; D010553:Personality Development; D012801:Sibling Relations; D013559:Symbiosis; D014427:Twins / Q000523:psychology*