Creativity and oedipal fantasy in Austen's Emma: 'An ingenious and animating suspicion'

Austen's Emma is one of the great novels of the Western tradition. In this paper the author explores the meaning of Emma's 'ingenious and animating suspicion' that Jane Fairfax seduced her best friend's husband, Mr Dixon. The interpretation that a psychoanalytic understanding makes possible shows how this suspicion represents an oedipal fantasy projected on to Miss Fairfax. Further exploration demonstrates how the fantasy is linked both to Emma's systematic unkindness to Jane Fairfax and to Emma's famous insult to Jane's aunt, Miss Bates. Emma's suspicion projects an oedipal fantasy with its incestuous impulses on to her rival and satisfies an envious aggression at the same time. The author's purpose in this paper is to bring to light through psychoanalytic understanding Austen's dramatisation of the complexity and creativity of the oedipal situation. In addition to the regression in oedipal fantasy, the primary process also functions with a progressive quality that expands and enriches the ego, a double movement described in Keats's 'negative capability', which has been elaborated by Bion. The primal-scene fantasies are often brought alive in the analytic transference. These situations and painful emotions are dramatically portrayed through Austen's genius as vehicles for change. A sudden integration follows a phase of disorganization: 'It darted through her with the speed of an arrow. Mr Knightley must marry no-one but herself'. Emma, who is Austen's 'imaginist', moves from the projected fantasy of the sad love triangle through envy aggression and the narcissistic blows of self-doubt and loss of love to moments of illumination and connection.     

Psychoanalytic considerations about the anti‐oedipal condition in Heinrich von Kleist’s Penthesilea and in the analysis of Miss M1

Based on Heinrich von Kleist’s drama Penthesilea and a clinical case, this study seeks to demonstrate a theoretical concept that is developed and identified as the anti‐oedipal condition. This state involves a regressive insistence on suffocating any form of oedipal maturation and, with it, any form of genital–sexual desire; it damages, even destroys, any form of intellectual–creative curiosity. A specific form of defensive organization, the anti‐oedipal condition, is sought out when psychic development, when oedipal–genital maturation requires re‐establishing contact with a sort of inner terra cremata, an emotional domain that once had been supposed to be eliminated due to catastrophic experiences that could not be integrated. This defensive organization dominated Kleist’s Amazons as well as Miss M. What happened first in both instances was a regression to and fixation at the anti‐oedipal condition, but the paths leading out of this incapsulation were antipodal.     

Little Hans and the thought police: the 'policeman fantasies' as the first reported supervisory transference fantasies

The ‘policeman fantasies’ in Freud ’s case of Little Hans, famous for being Freud ’s most direct evidence for specifically sexual oedipal desire by Hans for his mother, are reconsidered. The Hans case is the first recorded instance of psychoanalytic supervision, and recent studies suggest that it is common for patients in supervised treatment to experience fantasies about the supervisor. It is argued that the policeman fantasies are the first recorded instances of such transference fantasies about psychoanalytic supervision and the patient–therapist–supervisor triangle. The explanatory power of this interpretation is supported by the nuances of the features of the fantasies themselves, as well as by the context in which they occurred that might serve as ‘day residues’. Moreover, this interpretation provides an answer to the central mystery of the two fantasies, which goes unaddressed by Freud ’s oedipal interpretation: Who is the policeman?     

Homosexuality: Coming out of the confusion

The author asserts that earlier theoretical assumptions contribute to the conceptual confusion about homosexuality in much contemporary psychoanalytic research. Bergeret's article, recently published in this Journal , is exemplary of this confusion. The author refutes his contention that homosexuality is not 'true' sexuality but merely a defensive, narcissistic fixation away from, or a nearly psychotic denial of, heterosexuality. He then clarifies specific areas of conceptual confusion regarding homosexuality still prevalent in psychoanalytic discourse that derive from earlier theoretical premises. These areas of confusion include manifest versus latent homosexuality, narcissism and bisexuality, oedipal dynamics and development, and transference and technique.     

The wish for revenge

The wish for revenge is a ubiquitous response to narcissistic injury, and particularly to the narcissistic injury that accompanies oedipal defeat. Vengeful fantasy serves to represent and manage rage and to restore the disrupted sense of self and internalized imagining audience that have resulted from injury. Clinical and literary examples demonstrate the split within the representation of the self and the imagining other that underlies the wish for revenge, and the way that this split operates differently in the psychic economy of the transiently and the chronically vengeful.     

The imaginer and the imagined

A transference of the imaginer and the imagined, arising from largely unconscious fantasies of the way parent and child interact to construct a view of reality, is present in all analyses. For narcissistic patients, primitive fantasies of the imaginer and imagined form an enduring organization, and the enactment of these fantasies in transference and countertransference distorts the way analyst and patient construct meaning. Clinical material demonstrates the deepening that occurs when these fantasies are interpreted.     

A variation on Freud's theme in "A child is being beaten"--mother's role: some implications for superego development in women.

Clinical material is presented leading to a discussion of beating fantasies which varies from Freud's model. Analysis shows that the fantasied role girls assign to mother as the punisher in the oedipal drama is equivalent to the fantasied role boys ascribe to father as castrator. For both sexes, castration anxiety spurs the internalization of parental prohibitions, the repression of oedipal wishes, and the subsequent structuralization of the superego. Mother establishes the "oedipal law" for the girl analogously to father's doing the same for the boy. The role that such fantasies play in the formation of the female superego is examined.     

Grievance: the underlying oedipal configuration

In this paper the author describes some of the clinical features encountered in patients who seem to 'nurture' a persistent grievance. He gives clinical examples, and discusses the nature of the powerful underlying dynamics. He suggests that contained within the patient's grievance is a set of phantasies that constitute the expression of his fear and hatred of reality, particularly the reality of the oedipal situation, the child's relationship to the creative parental couple, which Money-Kyrle (1968, 1971) has characterised as an essential element of 'the facts of life'. The phantasies the patient has evolved serve to protect him from envy and jealousy, anxiety and guilt. The primitive oedipal phantasies on which the grievance rests also contribute to the excitement and gratification that are characteristic of the grievance. The analysis of the underlying state of mind helps to account for the persistent grip the grievance has on the patient, and the way this interferes with development.     

Oedipal dynamics in panic disorder

Both research and clinical work have revealed factors that can lead to the onset and persistence of panic disorder. Preoedipal conflicts intensify the danger of oedipal longings for panic patients. Competition with the same-sex parent is linked with angry preoedipal fantasies and associated fears of disruption in attachments. Fantasies or actual successes can thus trigger panic episodes. Regression to a helpless, dependent state such as panic defends against the danger of aggressive, competitive fantasies and actual achievements. However, the regressive state can also be experienced as dangerous, and can be linked with frightening homosexual fantasies. A reactive aggressive oedipal stance can sometimes result, triggering escalating turmoil. The panic episode serves a series of compromise formations in dealing with these conflicted wishes.     

Das Drama des begabten Kindes und die Suche nach dem wahren Selbst

The clinical material for this study of female fantasies stems from a specific psychoanalytical situation where the analyst and the analysand are pregnant at the same time. The impact of this situation is powerful. The emergence of archaic fantasies is facilitated in transference and countertransference. Fantasies of damage to the baby or to the procreative function may emerge very vividly in the double pregnancy setting and working through these fantasies becomes possible. It is suggested that these fantasies are typical female castration fantasies and manifest the fear of the mother's revenge and punishment for forbidden oedipal wishes. The double pregnancy setting may sensitize the analyst to her pregnant analysand's unconscious communication and yet blind the analyst in some areas to the protection of her own baby. The duality of phallic strivings in the girl's psychosexual development is discussed. They may be employed as a defense against specific feminine anxieties, such as fear of retaliatory attacks on her inner space and its fertility: the female castration anxiety. They may also be constituents of her sexuality, coexisting with inner genital strivings. The co-existence of phallic and inner-genital strivings in the female psyche is always conflictual.     

Sibling rivalry,separation, and change in Austen's Sense and Sensibility

The paper explores a process of growth represented in the interplay of Jane Austen's characterizations of Marianne and Elinor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility, approaching the text through the lens of psychoanalytic theories on oedipal sibling rivalry, separation, and processes of change. A close reading of Sense and Sensibility tracks Marianne Dashwood's repudiation of any ‘second attachment’ as the surface of an unconscious fantasy, denying a rival for the mother's love. A psychoanalytic view contrasts Marianne's lack of separation from her mother, her use of denial and projection, and her near death after losing the man she loves, with her older sister Elinor Dashwood's capacities for depression, reflection, and greater acceptance of loss and separation. The narrative portrays Mrs. Dashwood's identification with and idealization of her daughter Marianne, which contribute to her oedipal sibling ‘victory’. In the language and structure of the novel, the projections, identifications, aggressions, and separations (conscious and unconscious) of the sisters in the vicissitudes of their adolescent loves and rivalries constitute a process of growth. Austen's novel brings to life, with the vividness and coherence of great literature, forces and fantasies in oedipal sibling rivalries, inspiring renewed attention to their subtle presence in the transference and countertransference of the psychoanalytic process.     

Killing your children to hurt your partner: A South African perspective on the motivations for revenge filicide

The aim of the study was to investigate the offence characteristics and motivations for revenge filicides. Revenge filicide is an act where one parent kills their own offspring for retribution to hurt and upset the other parent. The cases of 20 revenge filicide murderers (14 male and six female) were analysed to determine the motivations and offence characteristics of revenge filicide offenders. It is the first South African study to highlight the motivations and associated characteristics in revenge filicides. Themes such as a loss of social identity due to rejection; extreme rage type anger; external locus of control; sadism; a desire to cause pain and a need to inflict harm are highlighted in this article. The initial emotional response may escalate from mild anger to a level of narcissistic rage which eventually culminates in the murdering of the child to punish and hurt the other parent and to restore control.     

Remarriage As A Trigger of Parental Alienation Syndrome

Maladaptive efforts to adjust to remarriage can provoke or exacerbate parental alienation syndrome. The remarried parent, the other parent, the stepparent, and the child each may contribute to the disturbance. Underlying dynamics include jealousy, narcissistic injury, desire for revenge, the wish to erase the exspouse from the child’s life in order to “make room” for the stepparent, competitive feelings between the exspouse and stepparent, the new couple’s attempt to unite around a common enemy and avoid recognition of conflicts in the marriage, the child’s attempt to resolve inner conflict, and parent-child boundary violations. These dynamics are discussed and suggestions for treatment are offered.     

Narcissism and the personal myth

Kris (1956) described the concept of the personal myth as an autobiographical story built around a family romance fantasy seen specifically in obsessive characters and serving a defensive function. In this paper the concept of the personal myth was expanded to include similar defensive constellations originating from within the grandiose self, built around omnipotent and omniscient fantasies and occurring in character formations with pregenital, narcissistic pathology. The case of a known author and poet, Nikos Kazantzakis, was used to illustrate the thesis of the paper. The available biographical material and the work of the author offer evidence to support the claim that the author's personal myth was a protective shield against anxiety originating in early narcissistic traumata.     

Three visits to eternity: Freud, Wiesel, and Patient X

Freud's experience on the Acropolis is reviewed and reappraised. Also, the experience of Elie Wiesel at the Wall in Jerusalem and Patient X's reaction visiting an Egyptian temple are examined. Carl Jung's wish to go to Rome and his inability to do so are noted. The aim of the paper is to offer deeper understanding about intense reactions many sensitive and creative people experience over travel to special places. These places are treated as idealized and ambivalently loved transference objects. Normal anticipatory pleasure prior to the trip is impaired and reality pleasure at the site cannot be enjoyed. When these spots are reached, ego regression is initiated by the intolerably intense narcissistic pleasure mobilized by the gratification of fantasies that were felt to be unrealizable. The fantasies can be conscious or unconscious and from oedipal as well as preoedipal and postoedipal developmental levels; however, they always involve the fulfillment of overwhelmingly powerful wishes. The deep ego regression, archaic fantasies, and the complex defenses mobilized are frightening since there may also be concern about ego dissolution or irreversible transformation. One highly adaptive solution which helps master these conflictual and developmental experiences is creative ego activity. While maintaining integrity for the individual ego and enhancing the self, creative work and accomplishment also enrich and advance the cultural process.     

The evolved function of the oedipal conflict

Freud based his oedipal theory on three clinical observations of adult romantic relationships: (1) Adults tend to split love and lust; (2) There tend to be sex differences in the ways that men and women split love and lust; (3) Adult romantic relationships are unconsciously structured by the dynamics of love triangles in which dramas of seduction and betrayal unfold. Freud believed that these aspects of adult romantic relationships were derivative expressions of a childhood oedipal conflict that has been repressed. Recent research conducted by evolutionary psychologists supports many of Freud’s original observations and suggests that Freud’s oedipal conflict may have evolved as a sexually selected adaptation for reproductive advantage. The evolution of bi-parental care based on sexually exclusive romantic bonds made humans vulnerable to the costs of sexual infidelity, a situation of danger that seriously threatens monogamous bonds. A childhood oedipal conflict enables humans to better adapt to this longstanding evolutionary problem by providing the child with an opportunity to develop working models of love triangles. On the one hand, the oedipal conflict facilitates monogamous resolutions by creating intense anxiety about the dangers of sexual infidelity and mate poaching. On the other hand, the oedipal conflict in humans may facilitate successful cheating and mate poaching by cultivating a talent for hiding our true sexual intentions from others and even from ourselves. The oedipal conflict in humans may be disguised by evolutionary design in order to facilitate tactical deception in adult romantic relationships.     

On phallic defense

The main theme of this paper is a consideration of some fundamental findings with regard to the oedipus complex and phallicism. By these terms is meant the oedipal sexual wish, the urgent need for defence against it and its attendant problems, and the phallic notion of only one kind of genital—the phallus—existing. The object of investigation is the potential use of phallicism as a defensive organization against the problems of the oedipal phase.     

Oedipal Shame,Rejection, and Adolescent Development

The definition of oedipal shame, dramatized in Sophocles' tragedy, is the painful affect resulting from accepting the reality of one's origins. A clinical example focusing on shame arising from adoption links oedipal shame to the theme of rejection. Furthermore, in adolescence the revival of the oedipal conflict may reactivate oedipal shame in which unconscious idealized fantasies of personal perfection and the object carried over from childhood have to be renegotiated. This process, illustrated by two clinical vignettes, may reveal entrenched masochistic defenses. An examination of a final scene from a film underscores the significance of oedipal shame in clinical practice.     

Should have known better: The impact of mating experience and the desire for marriage upon attraction to the narcissistic personality

Narcissistic males do not make good romantic partners. Narcissistic males lack commitment, engage in manipulative game-playing and are unfaithful. Despite this, they are still desired by females. Females value different traits in short-term and long-term partners. Previous mate sampling experience is also important to facilitate mate assessment. This study aimed to determine whether amongst young adult heterosexual females; their mate sampling experience and desire for marriage influenced their attraction to narcissistic personality traits in a potential mate. British females aged 18–28 provided information on past mating experience, future desire for marriage and rated their agreement with 20 statements relating to the extent that they found narcissistic personality traits attractive in a potential mate. Females with greater mating experience and those desiring marriage were more attracted to the narcissistic male personality. The narcissistic personality, whilst having many negative qualities, possesses qualities associated with status and resource provision. These traits are desirable in short and long-term mating contexts. Despite future long-term mating desires which are unlikely to be achieved with a narcissistic male and possession of substantial mate sampling experience, females view the narcissistic male as a suitable partner: a testament to the success of the narcissistic personality in facilitating short-term mating.