CriticaLink | Freud: On Narcissism | Terms

The id and the ego often come into conflict, as do the ego and the superego. The ego has to stop some of the impulses coming to it from the id--the desire to kill an opponent, for example, or to gratify sexual urges in socially unacceptable ways. These ideas are repressed, driven from consciousness by the ego. While repression is a valuable process in maintaining the individual's well-being, repressing memories or thoughts that are highly invested with libidinal energy--that are strongly cathected--can lead to mental disorders such as neuroses. Psychoanalytic therapy aims in part to help patients overcome repression and to explore and come to terms with the emotional content of the repressed material.

• 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