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Volume 11, Number 2
July-December 2007

L'ipotesi di due linee di sviluppo indipendenti considerando il concetto di narcisismo in Freud
(Two possible indipendent lines of development in the light of Freud's concept of Narcissism)
Gilberto Guimaraes Villela Jr.


SUMMARY

The aim of this paper is to verify whether the hypothesis of the existence of two psychic independent developmental levels is well grounded from a metapsychological viewpoint. The critical aspects and the difficulties that are present in the transition from the first to the second topic, when the concept of narcissism becomes an element of crucial importance from the metapsychological viewpoint.

The complex dynamics of the development of Freud's thinking is followed and one can perceive that with the Introduction of Narcissism the drive of self conservation disappears from the theory thus loosing the centrality that it had in previous formulations.

The difficulties and its derived problems, that result from the formulation of narcissism, are identified in strictly economic terms and the admission of two levels of independent development is considered as helpful to clarify some aspects that are still obscure both from a conceptual and clinical perspective.