What Is Psychoanalysis? by Barratt Barnaby B;

Author:Barratt, Barnaby B; [Barnaby B. Barratt]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 1092696
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Oedipal passages

To amplify this discussion of the fourth coordinate of psychoanalytic practice, I will descriptively schematize various common modes of passage through oedipal complexities. If we consider the traditional situation in which the Mother is the primary object of the child’s attachment in the so-called “preoedipal” dyad and the Father is a secondary figure, we can arrive at several permutations of the oedipal situation, as follows.

In the dyad, the boy is primarily attached to, and identifies with, his Mother; he both desires her and wishes to be the object of her desire, to please her and to be the way she wants him to be. As triadic relations develop and his Mother’s sexual connection with the Father is recognized, to the extent the boy remains attached to his Mother and wishes to be the object of her desires (now articulated as an active-phallic wish to possess his Mother), he will be motivated to form a secondary identification with his Father and will see the latter as a rival. Thus, the initial concordance of attachment and identification processes in the dyadic situation gives way to the secondary divergence of these processes in the triadic configuration. There is a continuity of erotic attachment (although it becomes more actively phallic) with a shift in sexual identification (from a primary feminine prephallic identity to a secondary masculinized phallic identity). This is a hetero-erotic version of one type of male oedipal scenario, in which homo-erotic wishes are suppressed and repressed.

However, there is always an actively competing male scenario: In the dyad, the boy is primarily attached to, and identifies with, his Mother; he both desires her and wishes to be the object of her desire, to please her and to be the way she wants him to be. As triadic relations develop and his Mother’s sexual connection with the Father is recognized, to the extent the boy becomes attached to his Father and wishes to be the object of his desires (now articulated as a passive-phallic wish to be possessed by his Father), he will be motivated to form a secondary identification with his Mother and will see the latter as a rival. Thus, the initial concordance of attachment and identification processes in the dyadic situation gives way to the secondary divergence of these processes in the triadic configuration. There is continuity of sexual identification (although it becomes more passively phallic, as it moves from a primary feminine prephallic identity to a secondary feminized phallic identity) with a shift from female to male erotic attachment. This is a homo-erotic version of one type of male oedipal scenario (although it applies more to homosexual men who assume a “bottom” rather than a “top” position with their sexual partners); hetero-erotic wishes are suppressed and repressed.

In the dyad, the girl is attached to, and identifies with, her Mother; she both desires her and wishes to be the object of her desire, to please her and to be the way she wants her to be. As triadic relations develop

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.