With the metaphor of the "dead mother," André Green describes not the actual death of the mother, but the child's experience with a mother who is emotionally absent and withdrawn due to depression. To illustrate the psychological deficits resulting from this constellation, he speaks of the "psychic holes" of a "white depression." Building on this early childhood experience, Green explores the development of narcissism, incorporating and expanding upon Freud's underdeveloped ideas on narcissism. He includes both the classic theories of narcissism from Kernberg and Kohut, as well as insights from other renowned psychoanalytic theorists: Bion, Klein, Lacan, and Winnicott. Green successfully brings the poles of narcissism—life narcissism and death narcissism—into a new and sustainable focus.