Note 44 — Chapter VIII · THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN SEXUALITY AND SEX IN RELATION TO UNIFICATION AND ORGANIC MATING

Narcism (homo-erotism) is a reversion of interest representing a sexual reaction to the pictorial affect or to the personal image. Autoerotism (ego-erotism) represents an arrest of the individual’s sexuality due to its impact with the personal image or with the social self-reflection about him. Narcism embodies the reflection of the individual’s erotism in its social phase. Autoerotism is the absorption of the individual’s erotism in its personal phase. Autoerotism is thus central and represents the retroversion or interception by the organism of its efferent interests. This occurs in the individual inversion expressed in the sensory images of dementia præcox. Narcism is peripheral and is expressed in the social inversion pertaining equally to the motor images of homosexuality as to the sensory images of paranoia.