Psychiatrist: Dr. Singh (1996-1998) -- Clinical Notes

erotic investment in mother -

frustration - (cf. phallic narcisissm)

In the childhood histories of the phallic-narcissistic character, the most severe disappointments in love are found with surprising regularity, disappointments precisely in the heterosexual objects, i.e., in the mother in the case of boys and in the father in the case of girls. And, in fact, these disappointments are experienced at the height of the striving to win the object by phallic exhibition. . . .

The inhibition of the further development to genital object-love in childhood because of a severe frustration of genital and exhibitionistic activities at the height of their development, typically by that parent or guardian on whom the genital interests had begun to focus, results in an identification with the genitally desired parent or guardian on a genital level. Boys, for example, relinquish and introject the female object and shift their interests to the father (active homosexuality, because phallic). The mother is retained as a desired object but only with narcissistic attitudes and sadistic impulses of revenge. Reich, W. Character Analysis at 220 (1945; Reprint, New York: Noonday Press, 1990).

internalization of image of the mother -

sense of guilt/need for fusion with an external object that matches the qualities of an internalized symbolic derivative of the mother (superego), which fusion mitigates feelings of guilt and restores narcissistic integrity. (There may be attempts to regain narcissistic integrity by means of ego mastery and creative endeavors. In fact, the satisfaction derived from acts of ego mastery are viewed by this individual as largely equivalent to that derived from human object attachments. See Napoleon piece).

Existential need: to return to the state of bliss once experienced in union with the mother. In its most pathological form, the strength of the cathexis of the need for fusion in itself will outweigh the cathexis of the mother. Nietzsche: "In the end one loves one's desire and not what is desired." Beyond Good and Evil, 175.
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erotic investment in mother -

shame -

inadequate symbiosis/disturbance in quality of internalized image of mother

sense of shame/need for fusion with an external symbolic derivative of the mother, such as a group or social system (or cult) that serves as an external source of impulse control. The social system serves as a prosthetic superego that overcomes the inadequate symbiosis and impaired internalized mother imago. Sacrifices to the conventionalized mores of the group, and acceptance by the group, serve as an external source of impulse control, which impulse control mitigates feelings of shame and provides narcissistic integrity. This individual will experience any threat to group cohesion as extremely threatening: also failure to comply with mores of social system, questioning the mores of the social system, and will abreact feelings of shame and object anxiety by sadistic aggression against persons who mirror his own most feared state.

Existential need: to overcome the failure to experience the state of bliss in union with the mother.

It may be that this individual experiences extreme envy (abreacted by shaming behaviors) toward those persons who once had (but lost) what this individual never had--fundamentally, union with the mother. This expresses itself in envy of any valued attribute or status that appears lost. Thus, in a law firm situation, an individual with a law degree who does not practice law but works in a severely underemployed state will arouse extreme envy (abreacted with shaming behaviors)--"He resembles the person who once experienced symbiosis with the mother, but lost her."