The Genealogy of the Ego Ideal

Bulimia: Psychoanalytic Perspectives

“…Sachs,. in these cases, also finds a failure of maturation of the ego ideal, a condition noted in bulimic women (Blos, 1974; Thoma, 1967, p. 103).…”

“…There is a failure of neutralization of scoptophilic impulses, vengeful castrating wishes and ego-ideal precursors. As is characteristic of the phallic phase, an outside object-the idealized phallus-persists as the primary regulator of self-esteem (Blos, 1974;Thoma, 1967, p. 103). Its continued nonabstracted and instinctualized' nature reinforces regressive functioning and a turning away from approaching genital conflicts, and encourages retreat, however contaminated, to the safety of phallic identification.…”

“…transposed on to the eating complex" (Freud, 1900, p. 355). T o the child and the unconscious, food is the paternal phallus, ingestion of which undoes castration and conceives the oedipal baby (Blos, 1974;Leonard, 1944;Lorand, 1943;Sylvester, 1945;Waller et al, 1940). The incorporative act of eatinggorging contains the desire for abdominal distention and impregnation, the defense of upward displacement with oral submission to mother, and the punishment of physical revulsion.…”

Gender Differences in the Representation of Congenital Physical Disability. How Disability Intervenes In the Formation of Gender

“…Therefore the narcissistic needs of these mothers seem to preserve the dependent relationships with their sons who constantly try to feed them narcissistically, by satisfying the expectations projected on them in order to "keep alive" the fantasy of the ideal child. As a result, the Oedipus complex seemed to take place in the shadow of a fixation where the boy had made a narcissistic identification with a phallic mother [21]. As Blos has pointed out, although a narcissistic identification with a phallic mother is a necessary step to the resolution of the Oedipus complex in the stage of puberty, the inability of these boys to idealize an available father figure will increase the likehood of a fixation.…”

On the Connection between Physical Defects and The Character Type of the “Exception”

“…Behind this reluctance lay extremely painful feelings of deprivation and hurt, feelings that greatly influenced his sense of his own lovableness and manliness. He felt he could not enter adulthood, since he had never experienced any interest on his father's part in his growing up (as Blos [1985] would put it, he did not have his father's blessing on that score [pp. 133-173]), and because to grow up was to finally renounce his powerful wish to receive his father's love.…”