This blogger's work, *Genealogy of the Real*, soon be on sale in bookstores, aims to deepen our understanding of the role of narcissistic libido in the formation of human personality, as postulated by Freud.
Scholars of psychology and psychopathology often treat the figure of Narcissus—the primordial Self of the narcissistic phase of libidinal development—superficially, erroneously attributing to him only the trait of negating the other or others.
It is often forgotten that, before negating what lies outside the self, Narcissus necessarily affirms himself!
Yet, it is only from this radical self-affirmation of the primordial Self that the dialectic can emerge which, through contact with the other, generates the Oedipus complex.
A reductive approach to the role of this primordial "Narcissus" inevitably impoverishes our understanding and analysis of the Oedipus complex and of personality development as a whole.
Only a very inattentive reader could imagine that the goal is to soften the negative image—widely held yet justified—of "narcissists" in the contemporary world. Nothing could be further from the truth! So-called contemporary "narcissism" retains little, if anything, of that radical affirmation characteristic of infantile narcissistic libido.
It is undoubtedly a phenomenon spawned by the frenzied consumerism that holds global society in its grip—the driving force behind so much destruction of the natural world around us! Constantly driven to consume compulsively, people retreat into a self-image—an image reified and transformed into a thing, a commodity—which they seek to sell and to enjoy autoerotically!
An urgent task awaits those dedicated to studying the development of libido and personality: understanding how this narcissistic libido is appropriated by the structure of capitalist production.
It is often forgotten that, before negating what lies outside the self, Narcissus necessarily affirms himself!
Yet, it is only from this radical self-affirmation of the primordial Self that the dialectic can emerge which, through contact with the other, generates the Oedipus complex.
A reductive approach to the role of this primordial "Narcissus" inevitably impoverishes our understanding and analysis of the Oedipus complex and of personality development as a whole.
Only a very inattentive reader could imagine that the goal is to soften the negative image—widely held yet justified—of "narcissists" in the contemporary world. Nothing could be further from the truth! So-called contemporary "narcissism" retains little, if anything, of that radical affirmation characteristic of infantile narcissistic libido.
It is undoubtedly a phenomenon spawned by the frenzied consumerism that holds global society in its grip—the driving force behind so much destruction of the natural world around us! Constantly driven to consume compulsively, people retreat into a self-image—an image reified and transformed into a thing, a commodity—which they seek to sell and to enjoy autoerotically!
An urgent task awaits those dedicated to studying the development of libido and personality: understanding how this narcissistic libido is appropriated by the structure of capitalist production.


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