On autoerotism and object relations in the psycho-sexual development: some viewpoints on Freud's drive theories

Abstract

Autoerotic gratifications are necessary for children suffering from a disturbed mother relation, and constitute symptoms of the same (jactatis capitis, extreme masturbation, etc.). The origins of the autoerotic functions go as far back as the foetal stage (thumbsucking). In the habits of so-called normal human beings, they also have an important stabilizing function to psychic autonomy. We are accompanied by primary and sublimated autoerotic functions all through our lives, which offer comfort and satisfaction during the different vicissitudes of life. Freud's monistic drive theory seems more plausible to me than his later dualistic theories. In accordance with the former, man can regress from object-libidinal cathexes into autoerotic positions when feeling psychically or physically threatened, and during normal conditions when asleep, sleep constituting a normal narcissistic state.