 Freud called this situation secondary narcissism, because the ego itself is idealized.Explanations of the idealization of others besides the self are sought in drive theory as well as in object relations theory.From the viewpoint of libidinal drives, idealization of other people is a "flowing-over" of narcissistic libido onto the object; from the viewpoint of self-object relations, the object representations (like that of the caregivers) were made more beautiful than they really were.