The ego ideal leads to primary narcissism, where the child is unable to give up the satisfaction and security once experienced. He is not willing to forego the narcissistic perfection of his childhood. It seeks to establish a new ego ideal that early perfection can’t retain or accept. What he projects before as ideals are substitutes for the lost narcissism of childhood, in which he holds his ideal. Disruption of primary narcissism results in a state of helplessness and emptiness, which forces one to recognise the existence of the other, “not me”, an object in which they will invest their lost omnipotence. This incessant need to control and live in illusion leads to a perverted sense of self. The pervert believes their infantile sexuality (narcissism) has replaced fathers potency and masculinity, his infantile penis is perfect and adequate to satisfy his mother, and therefore no need to envy his father. This brings an abrupt halt to his psycho sexual development as his ego ideal is not invested in the genital father (mature), and his sexuality remains attached to his feminine mother.
Freud describes the child experiencing his mother as being castrated as she does not possess a penis, the reality is she has a vagina which the boys small penis can’t satisfy. The father’s bigger penis has greater strength, potential and virality which fills the boy with profound inadequacy and anxiety where he has to face oedipal defeat. When the child is obliged to acknowledge the difference between the sexes and complementary genitalia, they have to accept the difference in generation, as in mother and child. Pregenital sexuality, erogenous zones and part objects must be subject to the process of idealisation (idealisation of sexual instinct). Some degree of narcissistic cathexis of the sexual instinct is an inherent requirement for their alignment and acceptance by the ego. Otherwise, instincts remain alien to sublimation since the sexual aim of instinct remains unchanged. To idealise this pregenital instinct gives it a false dimension, value and significance, exalted and superior to the mature genital instinct. The pervert never idealises adult objects only part objects (food, feces, sexual zones ), objects of a anal sadistic phase. Idealisation of a perverse act is an absolute necessity to fill the empty void of inadequacy, as the paternal father he has disowned has the powers he lacks. His fetish and search for an ideal replacement reflect to him a transfigured image containing his infantile attributes, which allows him to revel in his new perfection by acquiring the object.
He will seek out the most exquisite, most acclaimed, most beautiful decor, image, not to become the genuine artist itself.
Development of Ego Ideal
The state of primary narcissism comes to an end with the confrontation and movement towards the father, where the child attempts to regain his omnipotence via incestuous wishes to rejoin mother and not be castrated. The incestuous fixation is the lack of mobility within the libido and masculine aggression, as they are unwilling and incapable of giving up possession of the mother. The repair is brought about using displacement of libido onto an Ego ideal, which leads to regression to archaic narcissistic re-instalment or psychotic megalomania. The ego ideal represents a link between absolute narcissism and object-relatedness (O/R), between the pleasure principle and the reality principle, as it is a product of the ego’s severance from the object. It is the oral phase, during which the child emerges from a primary undifferentiated state, gaining an inside and outside experience situated in time and space. The upheaval of development stages means the child runs the risk of becoming frustrated; obstacles to the shortest route to achieving pleasure or satisfaction through the repression of reality. If the fantasy of reunion with mother is so potent (organising principles of psycho-sexual life), he will be defeated at the Oedipal stage.
The effervescences of infantile sexual life are doomed to extinction because these wishes are incompatible with reality and inadequate for development. Loss of love and failure leave behind a permanent injury to the self in the form of a narc injury leading to a sense of inferiority and low self-esteem. The tie of affection which bonds the child, as a rule, to the parent of the opposite sex succumbs to disgust and contempt, with no expectation of satisfaction. The incest barrier represents protection for the oedipal child from narc injury, and recognition of one’s impotence. The love from the mother helps to remove the Oedipal narc trauma as the child repossesses the mother. The Oedipal complex may lie dormant during a latency period and be reinvigorated during puberty, as the Oedipal desire to rediscover the primary object, which idealises them, is reawakened. The renunciation of the Oedipal object, via the dissolution of the Oedipal complex, helps bridge the gap between the ego and the ego ideal. The possibility of looking for the lost sense of fusion in idealised love, with an object other than an oedipal object. The projection of the ego ideal onto the new object, where narc libido is invested in the desired object, which accepts the projection. The love object serves as a substitute for an unattainable ego ideal or fusion with the mother. The maturity of the ego, characterised by becoming unassuming, modest, and more object-related, with traits of humility, narcissistic limitations, and self-injury, occurs in every case of being in love.
Ego inflated by the sudden radiance of the love object, closing in on the ego ideal (primary narcissism).
The individual stifles libidinal strivings at the risk of social ostracism.
The long-awaited disappearance into the void separating the ego and ego ideal is taking place (narc injury resolved). A hallucinatory wish fulfilment, where the ego ideal absorbs and devours the ego, a fusion between two agencies, and a rediscovery of the original blissful symbiosis before the differentiation of ‘me’ and ‘not me’ takes place. The risk of the object leaving or separating may necessitate the necessary detachment to restart the development process and the mourning process of the idealised object. The road back to primary narcissism makes the separate bodily experiences worthless, to be cast aside or imprisoned within a blissful merger, to avoid anxiety. One must inhibit impulses, suppress instincts and desires, and keep aggression in check. Character armour protects the individual from the external world and spares him anxiety ( at the same time, stores up anxiety ).
The Genital Character
The genital character may be joyful but also has intense anger towards the desired object, reacts with sadness and anxiety with loss of the object, but is not overwhelmed by it. Can experience passionate love as well as inextricable hatred, the superego of the genital character is sex affirmative with a high degree of harmony between the id and superego. Sexual inhibitions by the superego repress the id’s instincts and longing. The pervert is incapable of orgastic liberation due to an unsublimated libido and redirects libido into infantile objects and the resexualisation of pregenital phases. To attain genital love, genital sexuality must be coupled with an archaic, heterogenous element called “tenderness”. Sexual satisfaction is no longer sought for its own sake and pleasure, but is associated with the idea of an authentic relationship and care. When there is an oedipal fixation with an incestuous object ( mother ), there is a split between affection and sexual current, leading to impotence. Affection expressed towards an idealised object, a substitute for an incestuous object and a sexual current directed towards a denigrated object. A split between the oedipal mother (overvalued) and the pre-odeipal mother (devalued). Aggression is placed onto the preoedipal mother and manifests with conflicting objects. The sexual/aggressive discharge is extremely satisfying/ familiar because it is a repeat of the primal interaction with the despised object.
Genitality can be seen as rediscovering the primary object ( where ego was its ideal ), post-ambivalent, the absence of ambivalence with the one discovering itself in the other. This is inconceivable to the immature mind due to incest prohibitions; the child will always experience a gap between his wishes and satisfaction. The tendency in a man to effect a synthesis both of the instincts and the unified instincts with affection is based upon illusion. This would constitute the abolition of the gap between wishes and satisfaction, ego and ego ideal, and the denial of their very existence, through the suppression of the notions of development and maturation, and hence of difference. The object will remain an aid to the ego ideal, where instinctual satisfaction obtained in sexual relations reinforces narcissistic wishes. A satisfactory development of ego and instincts in the context of genital primacy seemingly favours the ability to love rather than being in love. Love implies the establishment of a relationship which is lasting and restorative after ruptures and transgressions. Affection or tenderness is the opposite of hardness (aggression), where innocence and fragility evoke compassion for oneself and others. Love is a force that tends to fragment the collectivity; this is why it is so vehemently attacked as egotistical, possessive, and individualistic, and is often forbidden.
Ego Ideal
The ego ideal is the heir to primary narcissism and reinstates the primary sense of merger or illusion. The superego is the heir to the Oedipal complex and is a product of the castration complex (reality). The superego comes between the child and the mother, where the ego ideal pushes back towards fusion. The superego provides some relief for the limitless demands of the ego ideal by instituting the incest barrier and transforming the child’s intrinsic impotence into obedience to the parental introject. Easier to obey a set of moral principles than to become a personality one`s right to one’s ideal. The superego is the last psychic apparatus to appear and is a residue of the earlier object choices of the id and the energetic reactions against those choices. Many adults never acquire a ” true” moral conscience resulting from internalised prohibitions, nor experience genuine feelings of guilt, but suffer from social anxiety. Only prevented from doing wrong by fear of external punishment and ostracism.
Groups allow members to suppress repressive unconscious instinctual impulses, with obedience only to the new leader, and to forego any sense of individual conscience. They surrender to the increased pleasure due to the removal of inhibition and the reinvocation of a primal horde. The father is the group ideal, replacing their ideal to feel a sense of belonging to others who share this new group ideal and abandon their individuality. A wish to impose uniformity upon the group, to disavow all difference and conflict, everyone must be the same. The individual’s will was too weak, as they would never take individual action. Social justice means we deny ourselves many things so that others will not have to without them as well. Within the group, their psychic apparatus undergoes a triple regression.
Regression to primary narcissism
The ego and the superego can no longer experience their control
The Id takes possession of the apparatus with the ego ideal, which seeks to realise fusion with the omnipotent mother and restoration of the lost primary object.
No impulses come into existence whatsoever, only collective ones.
Negation of the difference between the sexes, the primal fantasy of egalitarian ideology, defends against castration anxiety. The omnipotent mother represents the fused ego and ego ideal in its most regressive form, emphasising the pleasure principle, which takes the shortest route and erases all that has been acquired throughout development. The father figure is chased away and excluded from the group as the mother takes over. The leader activates the primary wish for the union of ego and ego ideal. He is a promoter of illusion, making it shimmer before the eyes of his members, as he brings the illusion to fruition. The mature ego ideal is violently set aside whenever the illusion of reunification is made possible, as group ideals and direct narcissistic gratification of instinctual wishes supersede the superego’s functions. The capacity to commit atrocities and violence following the moral criteria of the group, whatever stands in the way of affecting the illusion, must disappear and be attacked. The objects receiving the sadistic projection must be hunted down and annihilated. Group activity and promotion are fully justified from a moral standpoint. The rejection of the maturing process through the magic of the group identity itself is perverse, a denial that permits the avoidance of an unbearable truth and perception, keeping open a room for pleasure and gratification. The process of attachment to the father in the Oedipal triangle has no force, no existence, such that the mourning of infantile pleasure can be avoided. To be able to fulfil the wish immediately without delay due to mourning the loss of the object by substituting it with a new gratifying object.
The process of creativity comes from the ego ideal; without any corresponding sublimation of instincts, there will always be a narcissistic desire to recover a lost sense of unity. The deeper the wound resulting from the lack of equality between narcissistic aspirations and the real ego’s situation, the more imperative it will be to put into action efforts to bridge the fatal gap. Development of the ego takes place through the projection of one’s omnipotence, which has been surrendered onto the object, and the identification of the child’s first ego ideal (mother). The object has a formidable task of helping the child transition from this first ideal to others, increasingly more complex and evolved ideals, by integrating different phases of development.
The new ideal must carry sufficient satisfaction to offer more than the previous phase.
To gather curiosity and interest, where new pleasure is retained. The new introjection of attributes of the new object the child wishes to resemble allows the ego to be loved by the id. Once the male child reaches the oedipal phase, he projects the ego ideal onto his father, aiming to grow up to be like him. The father was previously viewed as an obstacle to the realisation of oedipal wishes, so the infantile ego fortified itself for carrying out the repression by erecting an internal obstacle. By idealising and borrowing strength from his father, the superego retains the character of the father. Non-identification with father means a lack of sublimated libido at one’s disposal for creativity and authenticity ( libido still sexualised); sublimation implies modification of the actual quality of the instinct ( more mature and evolved). When we look at the subtle difference between acting out and sublimation, sublimation serves ;
as a substitute for sexual gratification
as a delay mechanism.
As Purveyors of objects for instinctual gratification.
Where acting out is a regression from thought through fantasy to action, where the immediate object is sought for possession, desire and security. We start to observe an “as if ” quality that lacks genuineness, yet appears outwardly as if it is complete. This personality will easily shift between adherence and philosophy, embracing contradictory opposites without genuine inner transformation, often for the sake of social acceptance and a sense of belonging. If the creative process operates under the aegis of the ego ideal, the gap between the ego and the ego ideal is painful and fearful of exposure; the more they attempt to use creativity and fantasy to solve the deep wound. The ego ideal is based on the desire to cling to the denial of the ego’s limitations, thereby foregoing reality and growth. The need for narcissistic aggrandisement is linked to a profound fear of bodily catastrophe and destruction. Inflation works as a magical denial of castration, where imitation is related to the unconscious fantasy of omnipotence. Imitation as a character disturbance is found frequently in homosexuality, fetishism and tranvestism. The idealised father/leader imago prevents painful, contradictory conflicts, acting as a substitute, and avoids growth by creating an autonomous phallus. The idealised leader promises the illusion of ego and ego ideal unity is achievable and not far away. The natural process of attaining the fathers penis, completion oedipal phase, is avoided and the autonomous penis takes on a magic superior quality. The fecal phallus cannot be castrated as it is permanently renewable, an indestructible penis, both dead and eternal. Like the phoenix as it rises from the ashes by recreation, the all colourful phallus. The child brought up against the façade is confronted with a particular success in avoiding conflict and castration, as well as the illusion itself.
Social World
The child’s early experiences establish an innate connection between their bodily needs and instinctual gratification, and they seek to obtain it from the external world through symbolic activity. The discrepancy between the wish and the satisfaction, an attempt to restore a lost sense of fulfilment, drives the symbolic object into the unconscious due to external conflict. What remains are profound unconscious doubts, with difficulty in the regulation of self-esteem linked to narcissistic and object-related conflicts, the painful hiatus between ego and ego ideal. Social anxiety, caused by a fear of being caught or a fear of the law, which gives rise to fear and a sense of guilt, is missing. To be loved is to fulfil the child’s ideal; the loss of social love and approval widens the gap between ego and ideal, creating a narcissistic injury. The ideal has a social side, the ideal of the family/culture which binds narcissistic libido or cathexis, such as libido via shame and humiliation. The loss of love, equivalent to the loss of esteem, where love serves as a source of narcissistic supply.
Shame – connected to being seen (exhibitionism). Linked to narcissism and tension between the ego and the ego ideal (defeat )
Guilt is aroused when a limit (from the superego) is touched or transgressed, or when the ego ideal goal is not reached.
The adult is ashamed of his fantasies, which he cherishes as his most intimate possession and would rather confess his misdeeds than share his fantasies. Our peers play the role of the external mirror, reflecting our ego with all its possible faults, our sense of personal worth, and self-esteem. The achievement of identification that supports the ego ideal helps the child acquire narcissistic libido, as their ego is identified with idealised objects, which raises self-esteem and offers love to the id (instincts). Exhibitionism exchanges an active aim (loving) for a passive aim (being looked at). At some stage, the body ego must assimilate with the psychic ego, cathected with narcissistic libido, with significant regression and narc injuries, we witness projection of the psychic ego into the body itself. The body becomes the focus of intolerance, can’t bear the slightest imperfection, and is unable to grow old gracefully. If a mother does not love the child for who they are, but for what they do (deeds), performance and goals become a priority. Deeds are not the totality of experiences, as they express only a fragmentary aspect of the ego; the child has no autonomous capacity to regulate self-esteem and is therefore forced to depend on approval and recognition from others.
A lack of satisfaction will result from the gap between reality and the ideal.
The individual will continue to seek external gratification. Each stage of development requires a new internalisation, the child showing himself to be the observer with newly acquired attributes and functions. When the exhibition fails to achieve narcissistic satisfaction, the affect is shame and injury suffered. The infantile ego is fragile and lacks structure, which makes the child extremely vulnerable to injury. The person who is ashamed hides his face, bows down and prevents mirroring; social instincts are fragile, and passivity is regressed with a significant narc fixation. The more this occurs, the greater the inner aggression and pathology leading to further narc regression. The ego has lost its capacity for self-evaluation, where the mirroring function of the ego has become a negative caricature. Identifications are scattered, actions and words are no longer experienced as belonging entirely to the ego. The ego is the stranger who imitates it and takes possession of the tottering ego. With self-awareness and self-consciousness, an observer is created, which works to check against the grandiose illusions of the ego ideal (megalomania). The stand and rest over the ego, to observe the criticising of the self and exercise censorship and care for the mind. In the pathological case of delusions being watched, the mental agency becomes isolated, disassociated from the ego, and unavailable for analysis.
Instant gratification is renounced out of fear of losing the love object, the object absorbed by the ego and cathexed with libido and becomes part of the ego. Whereas the ego ideal is seen as an ideal outcome, the child submits to all its demands. The ego ideal seems to contain more loving maternal quality, and the superego a more prohibitive masculine energy. The ego ideal is the desire to cling to the ego’s as well as parents’ limitations and to regain infantile omnipotence by reidentifying with the idealised parent. A wish to be like the idealised parent, to become them, to resolve and obliterate feelings of envy and admiration aimed at frustrating the parent and self-narcissistic injury. The ego ideal functions as a gratifying agency, providing hope and resolution, whereas the superego is restrictive (in the context of oedipal conflicts), and anxiety is derived from the fear of castration. Hallucinatory wish fulfilment is only possible through the splitting of the object into the all-good / bad breast, accompanied by the denial of persecution and the existence of the subject’s bad objects (need for aggression). Denial of whole object relatedness and impoverishment of the ego due to loss of good parts of the self projected into the object and not accessible to the child. The introjected idealised object remains unassimilated; the ego seeks to escape its persecutors and become dependent on the idealised object. When the ego ideal is projected onto the object, the object is loved because it is perceived as the repository of the subject’s good qualities.
Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel (1995): The Ego Ideal, Psychoanalytic Essay on the Malady of the Ideal, Free Association Books, UK
