CriticaLink | Freud: On Narcissism | Terms

While persons engaging in anaclitic object choices tend to pursue mother- or father-figures as their partners in the hope these parent-substitutes will fulfill the needs of their ego-libido, people governed by the narcissistic object choice invest their libidinal energy in aspects of themselves. Freud gives a number of examples of this kind of object choice, from homosexuals who, in his view, love a version of themselves, to parents who form powerful attachments to their children--representations of "parts" of themselves.

• Adler, Alfred
• Bleuler, Eugen
• Busch, Wilhelm
• Ferenczi, Sándor
• Heine, Heinrich
• Jung, Carl Gustav
• Kraepelin, Emil

• anaclitic object choice
• anxiety neurosis
• cathexis
• Cogito
• dementia praecox
• erotogenicity
• hypochondria
• hysteria
• idealization
• instinct
• introversion
• libido
• narcissism
• narcissistic object choice
• neurasthenia
• neurosis
• Oedipus complex
• paraphrenia
• primary narcissism
• retrogression
• schizophrenia
• sublimation
• superego
• transference neuroses
• Umwelt
• vicissitude