Narcissist’s False Self: Sublime or Sublimation?

Context

• Meeting: Lecture by Sand Baknne (author and professor of psychology) introducing a theoretical link between the false self (as described in psychoanalytic literature) and sublimation. The talk critiques contemporary “possession” explanations of narcissism and situates the argument within classical and post-classical psychoanalytic thought (Freud, Winnicott, Lacan, Kohut referenced indirectly).

Main thesis

• The false self (Winnicott’s “false self” / Deutsch’s “as-if” personality) should be understood as a form of sublimation. The false self functions as a sublimatory channel that redirects the child’s traumatic, intolerable affect and drives into socially recognizable goals and behaviors, producing a pseudo-normal, pro-social façade.

Key points & supporting arguments

1. Critique of simple genetic/demonic explanations
   • The speaker rejects ‘‘possession’’ theories (demonic or purely genetic) as reductionist and unsupported by conclusive evidence.
   • Emphasizes a large body of clinical and historical literature linking pathological narcissism to diverse early childhood adversities (abuse, overprotection, spoiling, parentification, instrumentalization).
2. The child’s defensive withdrawal into fantasy
   • Early trauma and unprocessed catastrophic experiences lead some children to renounce external reality and withdraw into fantasy.
   • The false self develops as an “as-if” personality, a dissociative, relational, and defensive structure that helps the child survive overwhelming environments.
3. Characteristics of the false self
   • Spectral, highly relational, annexes and consumes the world (opposite of true self’s boundary-separateness).
   • Functions to fend off abuse via strategies such as identification with the aggressor, denial, serving as a decoy, and the creation of an internal paracosm.
   • Dissociative, infantile, antisocial, and grief-laden: a frozen snapshot of the child’s ego at age 2–3, endowed with exaggerated powers and goals.
   • Produces exaggerated, caricatured pro-social ambitions (wealth, fame, power) that mimic socially approved goals but in hyperbolic form.
4. Revisiting sublimation (Freud, Lacan, and critique of later simplifications)
   • Historical/linguistic roots: Sublimation borrowed from physics (solid→gas phase-change) and alchemy (purification/elevation of base matter to spirit).
   • Freud’s concept: a defense mechanism redirecting unacceptable sexual/aggressive drives into socially acceptable activity (e.g., art, science, sport). Early Freud linked sublimation closely to fantasy and mourning.
   • Lacan’s contribution: Sublimation changes the object’s position in the symbolic narrative—raising an object to the dignity of the Thing—rather than merely changing the object of the drive.
   • Critique of later Freudian narrowing: The speaker views later Freud’s reduction of sublimation to merely redirecting sexual drive into socially acceptable outlets as impoverished. Lacan refines the concept but downplays its narcissistic dimension.
5. Sublimation as narcissistic and individual-focused
   • Sublimation is intrinsically narcissistic: it is a strategy by which the individual internalizes society’s norms and converts them into means for self-gratification, risk-avoidance, and efficacy.
   • The process aims at maximizing individual benefit and avoiding punishment rather than enacting moral or communal values.
   • Freud acknowledged narcissistic libido and the ego’s mediation in turning object-libido into narcissistic-libido as part of sublimation.
6. Sublimation’s protective limits
   • Sublimation can prevent punitive social consequences (a kind of firewall) but does not protect the individual from internal self-destructiveness (splitting, projection, self-loathing).
   • Therefore it is better conceptualized as a survival strategy or reframing mechanism rather than an unequivocal protective defense.
7. False self as a phase transition (applying the physics metaphor)
   • The false self is described as a phase transition: the child skips the steady formation of a true, integrated self and moves from an underdeveloped ego-template directly into a false self—analogous to sublimation’s phase-change skipping intermediate stages.
   • This results in a lack of consolidated ego functions; reality testing is impaired or reversed in sequence.
8. Consequences for reality testing and behavior
   • Healthy sequence: test/assess reality → make decisions → act.
   • Narcissistic sequence: act/decide → observe consequences → retroactively infer reality testing. If actions “work,” they are taken as confirmation of alignment with reality and morality.
   • This creates manipulation and control strategies: because the narcissist lacks reliable internal reality testing, they seek to control environments and people to validate themselves.
9. False self’s socio-normative content and paradox
   • The false self is comprised of socially legible goals (success, status, wealth, recognition) but expresses them in exaggerated and compensatory forms.
   • Narcissists experience the false self as “normal” and recoil strongly from any claim of abnormality.
   • The false self uses id and ego-like functions without a properly functioning superego, producing often abrasive, contemptuous or volatile interpersonal styles.

Conceptual synthesis

• The lecture reframes the false self as a sublimatory mechanism: an infantile, grief-driven, compensatory rechanneling of intolerable affect and drive into socially acceptable aims. This reframing links developmental trauma, dissociation, fantasy, narcissistic structuring, and the cultural-linguistic mechanisms of sublimation (Freudian and Lacanian accounts).
• Sublimation here is neither purely moral nor purely protective; it is a narcissistic, strategic transformation of drives into socialized—and often grandiose—forms.

Clinical and theoretical implications

• Recognizes the centrality of early developmental trauma in the formation of pathological narcissism and the false self.
• Positions sublimation not as unequivocal maturity or culture-serving mechanism but as an ego-mediated, narcissistic strategy that can both enable social functioning and perpetuate internal pathology.
• Suggests reframing therapeutic approaches to address the phase-skipped development (building authentic self-structure, grief work, and integration) rather than focusing solely on moralizing or social conformity.

Important quotations/paraphrased assertions

• “The false self is a sublimatory channel.”
• “Sublimation is always narcissistic.”
• “The false self is a phase transition from a potential self to a fake self without going through a real self.”
• “In a narcissist the sequence is: act → see consequence → conclude reality testing was correct.”

Missing/limited points acknowledged by speaker

• The speaker rejects purely genetic explanations but concedes research gaps and the possibility of genetic contributions (no decisive evidence presented).
• Did not provide specific empirical studies or quantitative data; argument is theoretical, clinical, and argumentative, drawing on psychoanalytic literature and clinical observation.

Overall tone and style

• Didactic, critical of reductionist theories, integrative of classical and post-classical psychoanalytic thought, and provocative in recharacterizing the false self as a form of sublimation with strong narcissistic emphasis.

Suggested next steps (implicit)

• Further clinical and empirical research to test the proposed conceptual link.
• Therapeutic focus on reconstructing the developmental trajectory, grief work, and enhancing reality testing and ego functions.