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Results for “Oedipus Complex”

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PubMed1981

The significance of a child's age at the time of parental divorce.

The literature on children of divorce presents three theories on the relationship between a child's age at divorce and subsequent adaptation. Outpatient evaluations of 144 children of divorce, ranging in age from seven to 17 years, were coded for nature of emotional-behavioral problems and overall degree of psychological adjustment. Divorce timing was unrelated to overall level of adjustment, but was associated significantly with different constellations of emotional-behavioral difficulties.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Are "primitive" object relations really preoedipal?

Developmental models of object relations attempt to explain severe character pathology strictly in terms of preoedipal fixations and regressions. While aspects of the object relations of severe character disorders do appear to be preoedipal, developmental research suggests that others are preadolescent, adult, or abnormal, but not developmentally primitive.

Borderline Personality Disorder↗
PubMed1980

Freud's penis-baby equation: exploratory tests of a controversial theory.

Freud developed the controversial idea that pregnancy has phallic significance for women. He theorized that one aspect of the natural development of femininity involves the substitution of the wish for a baby in place of a desire for a penis. Two exploratory studies are described testing whether there is a link between pregnancy and phallic imagery as Freud's theory indicates. Study I supported such a link by showing that a group of women produced significantly more phallic imagery, on an inkblot measure, during pregnancy than they produced in the non-pregnant state. The pregnant women also produced significantly more phallic imagery than did a control group of non-pregnant women. Study II supported a 'penis-baby' link by showing that a group of women increased significantly in their phallic imagery under the impact of a subliminal pregnancy message while no increase occurred in a group of women receiving a subliminal message dealing with being penetrated. Alternative explanations for the findings are explored and issues are discussed in terms of other empirical findings related to Freud's ideas. The results suggest that Freud's speculations concerning pregnancy deserve further attention.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

The concept of character: moral and therapeutic considerations.

This paper discusses the relationship between the psychoanalytic concept of character and the moral considerations of 'character'. Both psychoanalysis (and dynamic psychotherapy) as well as moral philosophy are concerned with judgements of right and wrong. Though psychotherapists take a non-judgemental attitude toward those in treatment, there are implicit judgements based on the expectation of a developmental progression toward 'maturity' and the ability to value actions which go beyond the self. The history of the term character in the psychoanalytic literature is reviewed to show how character is dealt with in psychodynamic psychotherapy as well as the similarity of the concerns of the psychotherapist and the moral philosopher.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

The will in psychoanalytic theory and practice.

In psychoanalytic treatment insight does not necessarily lead to change, because psychoanalysis has not yet integrated into its theory and technique the full significance of two determinants: (1) the resistances arising from the patient's environment, and (2) the role played by the patient's will in his/her analysis. This paper is focused on the second determinant. Freud's elucidation of repression and other defences challenged the assumption that the will operated in an uncomplicated, straightforward manner. When, however, neurotic fears, secondary gain, or guilt underlying the inhibited or misdirected will are thoroughly analysed, patients are enabled to strive for their long-range aims, as clarified during the course of their analysis. Psychoanalytic theory has not recognized the will for two reasons. (1) Its theory is committed to determinism, which does not characterize its practice. Psychoanalysis does not predict outcome as required by philosophical determinism, but traces it backwards to find that it is meaningful, and not arbitrary or purposeless. (2) It attributes 'willing' to the ego, along with other multifarious functions, which confounds the development and operation of distinct functions, and distracts attention from the phenomenological investigation of each separate function.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1995

The role of the father in parental postnatal mental health.

Contrary to idealized images of parenthood, the months immediately following childbirth are characterized by enhanced rates of parental mental illness and filicide. In this paper we consider fathers and their role in the postnatal well-being of the parturient couple. The process of becoming a father is influenced by not only the man's internal and external experiences of 'father', but also the woman's, since the new infant's relationship with father is mediated by mother and her conjugal relationship with father. When a couple's prenatal relationship is based on a system of shared parental constructs involving a denigrated father and overvalued mother and a concomitant intolerance of the idea of a creative (Oedipal) couple, they will experience particular difficulties in adjusting to the new family configuration. In working with individuals or couples who have experienced post-partum psychological difficulties it is important to remember that not only maternal imagos but also paternal and conjugal ones need to be addressed.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Differentiation between patients with schizophrenia and borderline disorders in the Percept-genetic Object-Relation Test, PORT.

Schizophrenics (12 males), borderline patients (12 males), and self-selected normal controls (11 males, 17 females) were compared using PORT (Percept-genetic Object-Relation Test), a projective test, diagnosis being on the basis of DSM-III and Kernberg's six descriptive borderline criteria. The aim of the study was to compare the three groups in order to distinguish the two clinical groups from the control group, but also to distinguish the borderlines from the schizophrenic patients with specified diagnosis. The two patient groups differed from the controls on 15 different PORT signs/patterns. In addition, the borderline patients and the three schizophrenics of unspecified diagnosis showed signs in PORT of dissolution anxiety, splitting, whole configuration (fusion) and sexualization as defence, which the schizophrenics with specified diagnosis did not, although catatonic/hebephrenic, simplex, and paranoid schizophrenics could be distinguished in the test. Characteristic of the schizophrenics was also diffusion of domains of object relationships. In a blind prediction study with PORT involving five male and five female patients with severe psychiatric disorders (diagnosed by DSM-III-R), borderline patients could also be distinguished satisfactorily from schizophrenics.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Psychodynamic study of male potency disorders. An overview.

The information on the psychodynamics of monosymptomatic functional sexual disorders in men obtained so far from individual psychoanalytical investigations were tested on a large body of patients. In 74 men with psychogenic monosymptomatic primary or secondary potency disorders, several psychoanalytical interviews and pair interviews as well as, in some cases, a short psychotherapy were carried out. Investigations showed that in men with primary or secondary disorders of libido, erection and ejaculation, monosymptomatic neuroses were present in psychodynamic terms with particular repercussions for partner relationships. A correlation of symptomatology, age and psychodynamics was shown. Specific age-dependent conflict constellations could be discerned psychodynamically. In sexual phobias, primary disorders of erection and ejaculatio praecox, oedipal conflicts were found especially in young adults. In ejaculatio deficiens, the specific psychodynamics lay in an anal-retentive defense against pre-oedipal fears of anal-sadistic impulses and fear of ego-loss. In secondary (rarely primary) disorders of libido, erection and ejaculation, character neuroses, neurotic partnership conflicts on a pre-oedipal level as well as narcissistic crises in middle age were found. The results are discussed with regard to earlier views on the psychodynamics of functional sexual disorders in men.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

The circumscribed focus in intensive brief dynamic psychotherapy.

The clinical proposition that an ideal focus for intensive brief dynamic psychotherapy is an intra-psychic conflict rooted in oedipal pathology with circumscribed effects on personality functioning has been widely accepted a priori, without empirical validation. In this study 4 clinical raters assessed the 'degree of circumscribed conflict' and 'hypothesized psychosexual development level' from a dynamic evaluation interview. The variables were only marginally associated with DSM-III diagnoses. Within a subsample of 22 patients treated with intensive psychoanalytic technique, patients with whom a highly circumscribed conflict could be identified had the most favourable dynamic change 4 years after therapy.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

[Trial and temptation in the interpretation of accommodative paralysis as a psychosomatic manifestation].

An adolescent, presented during 24 months an intermittent bilateral accommodation palsy. All the clinical tests were negative; a few peculiar aspects of the patient's character incited us to carry out, in parallel, a psychological research. The young man proved to be a mixed introvert, with Oedipal and familial problems. The assumption that accommodation palsy could have a psychological--although objectively unprovable motivation--is not in contradiction with the psychological research.

Accommodation, Ocular↗
PubMed1977

Fatherhood and emotional illness.

The authors describe four cases in which men developed emotional illnesses related to their wives' pregnancies. In all of the cases, the patients had experienced sibling rivalry at a significant time in their lives. This factor seemed to be more important dynamically in understanding their feelings about fatherhood than previously proposed factors, such as envy of the wife's childbearing capacity, dependence on the wife, and neurotic conflict with the oedipal father. The authors suggest that in men with neuroses, the issue of sibling rivalry is an important determinant of reactions to fatherhood.

Acting Out↗
PubMed1988

Preschool children's erroneous allegations of sexual molestation.

Occasionally, a preschool child may erroneously accuse a parent of molestation. When this occurs, the child usually believes that his or her story is correct. A false accusation can be made when an adult has persuaded a child that the sexual events actually occurred, when a child in the oedipal stage has misinterpreted caregiving ministrations, when a child's thought processes are confused by primary process material, or when a child is secondarily involved in the projective identifications of a dominant caregiver. More than one of these mechanisms may operate in a given case.

Child Abuse, Sexual↗
PubMed1993

Rethinking Oedipus: an evolutionary perspective of incest avoidance.

The author presents a biological hypothesis of incest avoidance. Pertinent literature from evolutionary biology, ethology, anthropology, and clinical research is reviewed. Secure early bonding to immediate kin predicts later adaptive kin-directed behaviors, including preferential altruism (kin selection) and incest avoidance. Impaired bonding predicts aberrant kin-directed behavior, including diminished altruism, neglect, and an increased incidence of incest. Failed bonding predicts the highest frequency of incest. Secure bonding to kin may function to establish adaptive kin-directed behaviors, including incest avoidance. Bonding is conceived of as the developmental foundation of a form of social attraction, here called "familial attraction," which is evolutionarily distinct from sexual attraction.

Altruism↗
PubMed1975

The devil-priest syndrome.

Men frequently relate to women as either "sanctified" and hence, asexual, or as sexual, and therefore "degraded." A case is presented demonstrating a similar finding in a woman. The uncovering of the "Devil-Priest Syndrome" during psychotherapy is described. Some speculations as to the significance of this finding in the understanding of the psychodynamics of sexuality are included.

Adult↗