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PubMed1996

Purposive aspects of the erotic transference.

This paper illustrates the erotic transference of a male patient towards his female analyst and the pressures and resistances within the transference and counter-transference to act out sexually. The patient's desire to act out sexually is seen both as a form of repetition compulsion within the transference and, in its purposive aspect, as an expression of the patient's need to find a loving breast and an empathic father. The patient's confused sexual identity is seen as a narcissistic defence against the experience of unbeatable frustration in the pre-Oedipal stage. Through internalizing a new primal scene, the patient is able to separate from his past and to work through the Oedipus complex within the transference.

Acting Out↗
PubMed1992

Freud's Jocasta and Sophocles' Jocasta: clinical implications of the difference.

Evidence is presented that the Jocasta Sophocles depicted in Oedipus Rex is significantly different from the Jocasta of Freud's synopsis of the play. Sophocles' Jocasta prefers her son to her husband and this preference results in parricide and incest. The clinical implications of this difference are discussed in relation to a group of patients whose mothers resembled Sophocles' Jocasta. The analysis of one such patient is briefly presented. All these patients had difficulties at work and in their psychosexual development. It is argued that these difficulties resulted from the mother's attitude interfering with the dissolution of the Oedipus complex and that quite severe pathology does not necessarily mean pre-oedipal conflicts.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

The oedipal conflicts of the analyst.

A neglected dimension of the oedipus complex is the narcissistic aspect. The universal oedipal narcissistic injury linked to the developmental inadequacy of the child is crucially traversed only when optimal resolution of narcissistic cravings can be established. Rivalry with the parent of the same sex (the historic oedipus) is more visible than the profound oedipus linked to narcissistic injury. Failure to resolve the conflicts of the profound oedipus may have fateful consequences for the psychoanalyst himself. Some of the examples in this article are connected with the present situation of French psychoanalysis.

Humans↗
PubMed1993

[Patricide and the dialectics of enlightenment. The "fatherless society" as a model of psychoanalytic archaeology of modern times].

Proceeding from Alexander Mitscherlich's socio-psychological diagnosis of the fatherless society (1963), the author goes back from there to Freud's "Totem and Taboo" (1912/13) and its treatment of the myth of the origins of culture. Heim reflects on the recurrent failure of culture, its constant relapse into murder and barbarism and sees this in connection with the dialectic nature of enlightenment, the patently intrinsic ambiguity of all progress achieved by homo sapiens. On the one hand, patricide and the advent of a fatherless society promise emancipation from mythic forces; on the other, latent feelings of guilt ensure that those forces remain operative and periodically explode into murderous activity. The fatherless society could only lose the terrors of ambivalence if it were possible to bring to an end the symbolism of the murdered father in the secularized equivalents of the totem, and to resolve the culturally seminal Oedipus complex of the primeval age in the conciliatory figures of post-Oedipal super-ego and ego-ideal.

Cultural Characteristics↗
PubMed2004

Belief, hope and faith.

A case of hysteria is presented in order to create a frame of reference for the author's approach to the concepts of hope, belief and faith. A difference between hope as a 'sad passion' (which is here called regressive hope) and hope as a principle of mental functioning is established. The concept of hope will at first always be based on beliefs--either beliefs organised in the paranoid-schizoid position (called here fragmented and delusional beliefs)--or those organised from the depressive position (complex systems of beliefs, which end up being dogmatic); the latter typically occur in neurotics. It is suggested here that there is another possibility for hope, which is based on faith. The meaning of faith is considered here externally to the religious sense. The solid establishment of hope as a principle--based on faith--can be viewed as responsible for the opening up of creative potentials and as one of the main aims of analysis. Such an aim, however requires the establishment of a deep relationship, both in theory and in clinical practice, between the Kleinian question of the depressive position and the Freudian question of the Oedipus complex.

Borderline Personality Disorder↗
PubMed1996

Oedipal and preoedipal transference transformations. Comments on the analysis of a latency-age boy.

The critical importance of both oedipal and preoedipal unconscious conflicts in child and adult analysis as these conflicts unfold through the transference is documented using analytic process data. Evidence is provided that demonstrates the equal relevance of these psychic conflicts and their continuous interactions. The concept of transference transformations is proposed to explain these and later psychic conflicts that are resolved through the mutative interpretations unique to psychoanalysis. Extensive clinical data from the analysis of a latency-age boy are presented in support of this thesis. Thus, transference neurosis that arises from the infantile neurosis, the structural residue of the Oedipus complex, would be subsumed within the group of transference transformations. This concept eliminates the obligation to emphasize one developmental phase over another.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Isaac versus Oedipus: an alternative view.

Max Sugar (2002) argues for the essential similarity of the legends of Oedipus and Isaac with regard to the common themes of filicide, patricide, guilt, punishment, and expiation. Sugar does point out, however, that while the outcome in the Oedipus myth is tragic, it is hopeful in the narrative of Isaac. This article, in contrast, argues that this distinction between tragedy and hopefulness is not incidental and indeed stems out of the essential differences between the legends of Oedipus and Isaac, which themselves reflect the opposing life views emerging from Athens and Jerusalem. Indeed, we will argue for viewing the Akedah (the binding of Isaac) as a Biblical alternative to the Oedipus Complex, rather than simply an extension of it, and as the basis for a Biblical psychology and psychotherapy.

Bible↗
PubMed1979

[The truth of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis].

The concept of truth in Freud's Metapsychology is a modern idea: a subject-related and pragmatic modification of the traditional concept of correspondence. But more important is the proof of a new implicit understanding of truth which becomes clearer in reation to the archaic conception of truth (alétheia) in the Oedipus tragedy. Freud finds in this drama not only the Oedipus complex, but also the tragic process of disclosure represented in the tyrant's struggle to uncover the reality (being) behind appearances which exhibits a certain similarity to the progress of psychoanalytic therapy.

Freudian Theory↗
PubMed1985

Beating fantasies in a latency girl: their role in female sexual development.

Detailed clinical material is presented from the analysis of a latency girl whose inner life revolved around a series of beating fantasies. The clinical data support Freud's 1925 formulation that the perception of sexual differences initiates the oedipus complex in the girl. Whether a girl experiences vaginal sensations before puberty has been a controversial issue; in this girl vaginal sensations and contractions appeared prior to puberty.

Anxiety, Castration↗
PubMed1980

Oedipal equivalents in a clan culture: reflections on Navajo ways.

Patterns have emerged in anthropological and clinical work with Navajos which seem inconsistent with out present formulation of the Oedipus complex and its place in the emotional maturation process. This paper evolved out of an effort to reconcile psychoanalytic concepts with Navajo symptoms, experiences, feelings, and beliefs.

Competitive Behavior↗
PubMed1984

Son and father.

I have traced in my deliberations the mutual influence of drive and ego development throughout the male child's dyadic and triadic father relatedness as it proceeds within a changing soma and social surround during the first two decades of life. I have made the effort to conceptualize the normal developmental progression in male personality formation with explicit reference to the fate of the boy's dyadic father relationship as well as his negative Oedipus complex in general. These considerations, restricted as they are in scope and gender, assign to the dyadic father complex a nuclear role in neurosogenesis as well as recognize in it an etiological factor in relation to specific forms of psychopathology throughout the male life cycle.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

The pre-oedipal father-son relationship in Korean myths and in the patient today.

The author uses the material of Korean myths and folktale and from a patient to understand the way in which the Oedipus complex is negotiated and resolved in Korean society. In Korean myth and folktale a benign and supportive pre-oedipal father-son relationship is more appreciated and encouraged than the competition and rivalry in the oedipal father-son relationship. Consequently, in Korean myth the boy can develop balanced masculinity through the father's encouragement and protection and set out on his own journey to be a man as strong as his father. Oedipus, in contrast, was abandoned by the parent, which led him to act out his unconscious desire to kill the father, ending with total destruction. The difficulties of applying western-based psychoanalytic theory to Korean culture are discussed. Although we are influenced by historical, social and cultural patterns of external reality, we are more influenced by our unconscious than we are aware of, which enables us to share current psychoanalytic knowledge to understand Korean myths and patients without much deviation.

Culture↗
PubMed1985

Identification and its vicissitudes.

This paper attempts to understand the vicissitudes of identification within the co-ordinates of narcissism and the object relation. Firstly the dialectic pair primary identification/secondary identification are studied, and primary narcissism is suggested as the hypothesis which best explains them. The complex identification processes in the primary scene are considered next and the importance of the introjection of the oedipal parents for the formation of the superego is underlined. The importance of the structuring function of the introjection and projection mechanisms becomes embodied in the concept of projective identification, which comes to question the postulate of primary narcissism. The theory of projective-introjective identification is an extremely powerful instrument for explaining phenomena, however it obliges one to accept that the first introjections are radically different from the others. They have nothing to do with mourning but rather with primitive mechanisms which question the subject/object polarity and, so this author believes, spring basically from envy. Lastly, it is maintained that envy and libido are factors of a dialectic from which the object relation and the earliest processes of identification, previous to the Oedipus complex, proceed at one and the same time.

Defense Mechanisms↗
PubMed1988

Paranoia and the ego-ideal: death of a salesman's son.

Since Freud's (1911) explication of the nature of paranoia, much has been written concerning the dynamic underpinnings of the illness but less have been detailed regarding its manifestations structurally. This essay, with its case illustration, attempts to detail the relationship between paranoia and the ego-ideal. Both Blos' (1974) ideas on the negative Oedipus complex and Kohut's (1966) ideas on the developmental line of narcissism prove to be useful ways of linking the clinical picture of paranoia to the psychic structure of the ego-ideal. Both technical aspects of treatment as well as theoretical understandings are explored.

Ego↗
PubMed1976

Some thoughts on the ego ideal. A contribution to the study of the "illness of ideality".

Man searches continuously for the time when he was his own ideal--a time that is coincident with primary fusion with the mother. The fantasy of this fusion underlies the incest wish. Because of his helplessness, the child must postpone the realization of his incest wish and project it forward into the future. However, if the subject chooses the pathway of the oedipus complex and identification with the father to realize his incestuous fantasy, circumstance may lead him to circumvent the oedipal shpere and, through the mechanisms of regression, return to the mother of primary fusion. As in Aesop's adage, the ego ideal is at the source of the best and the worst of things.

Ego↗
PubMed1985

Demythologizing oedipus.

The oedipus complex is a basic psychoanalytic concept, which is only historically tied to its eponymic myth. It works in our system and in our method as a hermeneutic principle, organizing our understanding of the discourse of patients. Its validity depends on the situation of childhood development within the family, with its attendant passions and desires.

Child↗
PubMed1985

Family pathology and the infantile neurosis.

In this study we have attempted to investigate the connection (in the sense of a complex interplay) between the infantile and the adult neurosis where severe family pathology has been an important determining force. In the clinical illustrations of two female patients we tried to determine the fate (i.e. in terms of the compulsion to repeat) of the early infantile conflicts and experiences within the purview of their pathological family condition. In sorting this out, we distinguished between those repetitions viewed as passive reproductions and those repetitions viewed, as re-creative; the former finding their way essentially into the adult neurosis, the latter finding their way into parts of the personality under the aegis of their ego's organizing activity. The fashion in which the family pathology impinged upon the adult neurosis made the development of the transference in the analytic situation a most difficult arena for clarification, since there was a tendency to confuse past (early) events, past fantasy, current reality and current fantasy. In concluding we noted that both Oedipus complex and oedipal drama came together in these patients, revealing the link between the tragedy of their life-long family situation and what was termed a 'fate neurosis'.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

[Experiences with small groups in a psychiatric hospital (author's transl)].

The author reports on her experience collected over a period of almost three years with psychoanalytic groups in an open ward of the Psychiatric (Land Government-financed) Hospital at Düren. The special feature of this study is that the groups remained together for a short period only (10-12 sessions), so that it was necessary to limit the subjects covered. The problems which came up in these groups were partly due to the specific character of groups made up of in-patients, and partly due to the structure of such short-lived groups. An attempt was made to take advantage of the opportunity of the dual function of the head of an in-patient group, namely, to be the object of reference and transference for the small group and a member of the team for the entire ward, to offer a chance to the group members of focusing conflicts based on the Oedipus complex. In this connection, it was found to be very useful to enlist the help of the nurse or male nurse as co-leader of the group. Patients with a subsiding psychosis derived the greatest benefit from participating in such groups, whereas in the case of patients suffering from depression, participation in such a short-lived group should be discouraged.

Germany, West↗