An idealised concept of a loved one, formed in childhood and retained unaltered in adult life
an adult insect produced after metamorphosis (psychoanalysis) an idealized image of someone (usually a parent) formed in childhood
a mental image The object-imago is different from the perception of an object, though based on it Used by Jung, it usually means an image of a parent ("parent imago"), a concept he prefers to Freud's "superego " The parent imago has a personal and an archetypal manifestation (parent archetype) Normally, this imago recedes as participation mystique fastens onto the tribe or nation Integrating its contents activates the unconscious with the released energy; parents may be dead, but their imagos pass into unconsciousness, where they continue to attract the same ego-dissolving projections as before The activated centering process counteracts this danger