The pre-Oedipal states need not be considered either pathological or regressive if they are not counterposed against an Oedipal, or post-Oedipal norm. In other words, if there is no ascent up the mountain, if the villagers are happy to peruse the foothills and to smell the roses there, then there is no possibility of some catastrophic fall into a chasm somewhere. The self that is not egoistic, or barely so, is free to wander where it might, without pressure, since it is not bound to the structural limitations of ego. Furthermore, the pre-Oedipal self may be more normal without the development of ego to command it and give it a shape. Those who see the world in terms of dichotomies of absolute goodness or badness, absolute maleness or femaleness, have probably harnessed the pre-Oedipal self and its visceral capacities for perception to an unhealthy cause. Thus ego creates out of remnants of the pre-Oedipal self a veritable chasm of negative ideas.
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