Looking at Freud’s adolescence and his passionate friendships, this article will explore a quest for an alter ego that can regress to the status of narcissistic “controlling” doubles. This can produce a narcissistic wound, as otherness is no longer shown to complete the ego, but to be intolerably different from and independent of it. Moreover, the implications of this can be seen in Freud’s relationship with his daughter Anna.

Adolescence, 2024, 42, 1, 13-27.