Editing Omnipotence (section)

===As a stage of normal child development===
<!-- [[Omnipotence (psychoanalysis)]] redirects here. If changing this section heading, please update that redirect. -->
[[Sigmund Freud]] freely used the same term in a comparable way. Referring with respect to an adult neurotic to "the ''omnipotence'' which he ascribed to his thoughts and feelings", Freud reckoned that "this belief is a frank acknowledgement of a relic of the old megalomania of infancy".<ref>Sigmund Freud, ''Case Histories II'' (PFL 9) p. 113</ref> Similarly Freud concluded that "we can detect an element of megalomania in most other forms of [[Paranoia|paranoic]] disorder. We are justified in assuming that this megalomania is essentially of an infantile nature and that, as development proceeds, it is sacrificed to social considerations".<ref>Freud, p. 203</ref> Freud saw megalomania as an obstacle to [[psychoanalysis]]. In the second half of the 20th century [[object relations theory]], both in the States and among British [[Melanie Klein|Kleinians]], set about "rethinking megalomania... intent on transforming an obstacle... into a complex organization that linked object relations and [[defence mechanisms]]" in such a way as to offer new "prospects for therapy".<ref>Judith M. Hughes, ''From Obstacle to Ally'' (2004) p. 175</ref>

[[Edmund Bergler]], one of his early followers, considered that "as Freud and [[Sándor Ferenczi|Ferenczi]] have shown, the child lives in a sort of megalomania for a long period; he knows only one yardstick, and that is his own over-inflated ego ... megalomania, it must be understood, is normal in the very young child".<ref>Edmund Bergler, "The Psychology of Gambling", in J. Halliday/P. Fuller eds., ''The Psychology of Gambling'' (London 1974) p. 176 and p. 182</ref> Bergler was of the opinion that in later life "the activity of [[gambling]] in itself unconsciously activates the megalomania and [[grandiosity]] of childhood, reverting to the "fiction of omnipotence"".<ref>Robert M. Lindner, "The Psychodynamics of Gambling", in Halliday/Fuller eds., p. 220.</ref>

[[Heinz Kohut]] regarded "the narcissistic patient's "megalomania" as a part of normal development.

[[D. W. Winnicott]] took a more positive view of a belief in early omnipotence, seeing it as essential to the child's well-being; and "good-enough" mothering as essential to enable the child to "cope with the immense shock of loss of omnipotence"<ref>Adam Phillips, ''On Flirtation'' (London 1994) p. 18</ref>—as opposed to whatever "prematurely forces it out of its narcissistic universe".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.enotes.com/psychoanalysis-encyclopedia/infantile-omnipotence |title=Infantile Omnipotence |publisher=Enotes.com |access-date=2012-01-21}}</ref>