Primitive scene (psychoanalysis) – Wikipedia

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The primitive scene or original scene ( Urszene ), so named by Sigmund Freud in The Wolves Man , corresponds to the observation by a very young child of the sexual intercourse between his parents. First incomprehensible and interpreted as an act of violence, the scene can return to a more advanced age in children and adults in the form of fantasies.

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Urszene [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Laplanche and Pontalis specify that the “primitive scene” designation is the translation most often adopted by French -language psychoanalysts “As an equivalent of what Freud has named Urszene » . The Psychoanalysis vocabulary opted for the “Originally” translation “translation of Urszene , to which the article “Primitive scene” only returns [ first ] .

By mentioning the ‘ Urszene » , translated by “Originally scene”, Michel Ploud and Élisabeth Roudinesco report that the expression appears under the pen of Sigmund Freud for the first time in 1897 [ 2 ] in a letter to Wilhelm Fliess to designate some ‘ infant scenes » ; It was not exclusively or precisely parental coitus, they comment. Subsequently, the term in the singular Urszene will constantly designate according to these authors “The sexual intercourse between parents such as it can be looked at or fantasized by the child who interprets it as an act of violence, even rape, on the part of the father with regard to the mother” [ 2 ] . Sophie de Mijolla-Mellor underlines that the primitive scene, “Interpreted by him in terms of violence” remains an incomprehensible enigma and causes sexual excitement in children [ 3 ] .

“Scenes from” to “the original scene” [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

In the Psychoanalysis vocabulary (1967), the term of ‘ Ursumen » (in the plural in the text in German of Freud) for “Originally or primitive scenes” Appears in two occurrences: at the entrance “Originally fantasies” and at the entrance “Originally scene”, where J. Laplanche and J.-B. Pontalis refer to note respectively to the manuscripts M and L of Sigmund Freud, joined to letters at Wilhelm Fliess of 25.5.1897 (Letter 63) [ note 1 ] For “Originally fantasies” and 2-5-1897 (letter 61) [ note 2 ] For “Originally scene” [ 4 ] , » [ 5 ] .

Freud sought very early “To discover real archaic events, capable of providing the last foundation of neurotic symptoms” , and these are “These real, traumatic events” , whose memory is sometimes “Masked by fantasies” which he calls Ursumen , that is to say “original scenes” [ 4 ] .

Laplanche and Pontalis draw attention to the fact that “These primary events are designated by the name of scenes » , among which Freud goes “Get out […] typical and limited number scenarios” : these are the original fantasies ( Urphantasian ), the word appearing in Freud in a writing of 1915 [ 4 ] . The authors of Psychoanalysis vocabulary emphasize that these original fantasies “Meet very generally in human beings, without being able in each case to invoke scenes really experienced” [ 4 ] : The original scene will be one of the themes of these original fantasies, alongside other themes such as castration and seduction [ 4 ] .

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In the analysis of the case of man to the wolves (1914) [ note 3 ] , Freud will seek “To establish the reality of the parental coitus observation scene” At the origin of the history of his patient [ 4 ] . But the notion “Of a sexual memory too early to be translated into verbal images” is already in 1896 in a letter to Wilhelm Fliess (letter from ): Freud evokes a “Sexual surplus” preventing “The translation into verbal images” [ 3 ] . This notion of observation of a sexual intercourse between parents, but by an older child, returns at the time of Hysteria studies in the “Katharina case”; It also appears in The interpretation of the dream (1900) as a fantasy “With the dream of having observed parental coitus during intrauterine life” [ 3 ] .

The Wolves Man [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

It is in the analysis of the case of the “man to the wolves” (1918) that Freud uses for the first time the term “original scene” to describe the observation of the sexual intercourse of his parents by a very young child [ 5 ] .

Sergei Pankejeff, whose health had deteriorated since the age of eighteen following a gonorrhea, consulting Freud at twenty-three, first in : He was then “Totally disabled and needed to be permanently accompanied” [ 6 ] . In the analysis of the case of the “man to the wolves”, nicknamed in this way because of the “Traumatic dream that Sergueï had at the age of four with wolves” , Freud “Most emphasizes the patient’s childhood premium” (about its first four years) [ 6 ] . The “Give particular importance to the primitive scene and the castration complex” [ 6 ] . The said “primitive scene”, indicated as the first decisive element in the patient’s subsequent pathology, was observed by the child at the age of a year and a half: it was a “Coit To Tergo » , that Sergei did not understand until later, when the scene returned “In the form of a dream” [ 6 ] , the “dream of wolves” is at the age of four. As Patrick Mahony explains, the authenticity of the primitive scene, in the analysis led by Freud, is the result of “Careful reconstruction that he [Freud] makes the sense of every detail of this dream” [ 6 ] .

Challenges [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

On the touchstone of the analysis of man to the wolves, where Freud does not stop seeking the event reality of the original scene, compared to the fantasy, “The question was the subject of a debate by Freud with Jung and with himself” [ 5 ] , write Jean Laplanche and J.-B. Pontalis in 1967. “Freud wants to maintain against Jung […] the idea that this scene belongs to the past – ontogenic or phylogenic – of the individual and constitutes an event which can be of the order of myth, but which is already there, before any meaning brought after ” [ 5 ] . As an event, according to the explanation given by Sophie de Mijolla-Mellor, the original scene has a “Traumatic scope” who is “More obvious than if you see a pure fantasy, rebuilt after the fact” in the sense of fade back jungie [ 3 ] : the debate is therefore “Between” event reality “and” psychic reality “” ” [ 3 ] . Such a debate is not without referring to Freud’s debate with himself at the time of his neurotica [ 3 ] and abandonment in 1897 of the first Freudian theory called “seduction”. However, even more than the original scene, Sophie de Mijolla-Mellor considers that “This is the whole question of fantasy” which is raised at that time [ 3 ] .

Still according to S. de Mijolla-Mellor, “The original scene is inseparable from infantile sexual theories of which it arouses training” [ 3 ] . Infantile sexual theories “Try to fill a chasm” incommensurable “Between the emotional and psychosexual experience of the child and the words that could [consider it” : the primitive scene in question comes out as “A disturbing representation, where the parents’ familiar is recognized and denied both” , while the child feels excluded at the same time as he is concerned [ 3 ] .

Ruth Mack Brunswick [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Serge Pankejeff made a later analysis with Ruth Mack Brunswick [ 6 ] . According to Laplanche and Pontalis [ 5 ] , Ruth Mack Brunswick considers that “The understanding that the child has of parental coitus and the interest he has found for him in his own pre -eedipal bodily experiences with his mother and in the resulting desires” [ note 4 ] .

Melanie Klein [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

In 1928, following Freud and as part of the second theory of the impulses of this one, Melanie Klein made the “original scene” something very special marked by his vision of duality between life impulses and death impulses; She notably introduces her notion of combined parents to underline the indifferentiation specific to the archaic fantasy which would prefigure the fantasy of the primitive scene [ 7 ] .

Notes [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

  1. ↑ Freud, manuscript joined to letter 63 in Fliess: in The birth of psychoanalysis , Paris, Puf, 1956, p. 179-182 .
  2. ↑ Freud, manuscript l joint to letter 61 to Fliess: in The birth of psychoanalysis , Paris, Puf, 1956, p. 174 .
  3. ↑ First writing in 1914 of the case of the man to the wolves by Freud (see Laplanche and Pontalis, “original scene”).
  4. ↑ Laplanche and Pontalis quote Ruth Mack Brunswick in The Preoedipial Phase of the Libido Development , 1940, in The Psycho-Analytic Reader , 1950, p. 247 .

References [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

  1. ↑ Jean Laplanche and Jean-Bertrand Pontalis, Psychoanalysis vocabulary , “Original scene” and “Primitive Scene” entries, 2007, Presses Universitaires de France, collection “Quadrige Dicos Poche”.
  2. ↑ a et b Elisabeth Roudinesco and Michel Filling , Dictionary of Psychoanalysis , Paris, Fayard, coll. “The Pochotheque”, ( first re ed. 1997), 1789 p. (ISBN  978-2-253-08854-7 ) , p. 1389 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h and 1 Sophie de Mijolla-Mellor in Alain de Mijolla Sous la dir. : International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis , Fayard, 2005, coll.: Grand Pluriel, p. 1601-1602 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e and f Jean Laplanche & Jean-Bertrand Pontalis: Psychoanalysis vocabulary (1967), entry: “original fantasies”, PUF , 1984, p. 157-159 .
  5. ↑ A B C D and E J. Laplanche & J-B. Pontalis, Psychoanalysis vocabulary , Entrance: “original scene”, PUF , 1984, p. 432-433 .
  6. ↑ a b c d e and f Patrick Mahony, “from the history of infantile neurosis (the wolf man)”, in International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (2002), 2 vol. (1.a/l and 2. m/z), Paris, Hachette-Littérature, 2005, p. 1-3.
  7. ↑ Melanie Klein, “the early stages of the Oedipal conflict”, in Psychoanalysis essays , Payot, coll. “Rivages”, 2005, (ISBN  2228881449 ) .

Bibliography [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Reference texts [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

  • Sigmund Freud,
    • Letters to Wilhelm Fliess ,
      • Birth of psychoanalysis (1956), translation of Anne Berman, Paris, PUF, 1986 (ISBN  2 13 039419 1 ) .
      • Letters to Wilhelm Fliess 1887-1904 , Complete edition, translation of Françoise Kahn and François Robert, Paris, PUF, 2006 (ISBN  2130549950 )
    • With Joseph Breuer, Hysteria studies , translated from German by Anne Berman, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1956.
    • The interpretation of the dream ,
      • The interpretation of dreams , Tr. In French first re ed. I. Meyerson (1926), Paris PUF, new ed. Revised: 4 It is quarter 1967, 6 It is Draw: 1987, February. (ISBN  2 13 040004 3 )
      • The interpretation of the dream , translated by Janine Altounian, Pierre Cotet, René Laîné, Alain Rauzy and François Robert, OCF.P , Tome IV, P.U.F., 2003, (ISBN  213052950x ) ; Fracility / P.U.F., 2010 (ISBN  978-2-13-053628-4 ) .
    • From the history of infantile neurosis ( From the history of infantile neurosis , 1914 / first re Publication: 1918), trad.: Janine Allerian & Pierre Cotet, Complete works by Freud / Psychoanalysis , Tome XIII, Paris, PUF, 1988, p. 1-119 (ISBN  2 13 042148 2 ) ; Ed: PUF, coll. : Quadrige Grande Texts, Preface: Patrick J. Mahony, 2009, (ISBN  2130570259 )
  • (in) Ruth Mack Brunswick dans The Preoedipial Phase of the Libido Development , 1940, in The Psycho-Analytic Reader , 1950.
  • Melanie Klein, “the early stages of the Oedipal conflict”, in Psychoanalysis essays , Ed.: Payot, coll. Shores, 2005, (ISBN  2228881449 )

Studies [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

  • Michèle Bertrand « Argument: Primitive scene », French Review of Psychoanalysis , Presses Universitaires de France, vol. 74, n O 4, , p. 965-968 (ISBN  9782130576310 , ISSN  0035-2942 , DOI  10.3917/rfp.744.0965 , résumé , read online )
  • Joyce McDougall : Plea for a certain abnormality , Ed.: Gallimard, coll. : Knowledge of the unconscious, (ISBN  2070299449 )
  • Jean Laplanche and Jean-Bertrand Pontalis,
    • Original fantasy, fantasies of origins, origin of the fantasy (1964: first re publication in Modern times ), Paris, Hachette Liteitures, collection “Texts du XX It is century “, with” Post-Scriptum (1985) “by J. Laplanche and J.-B. Pontalis, © Hachette, 1985.
    • “Originally scene”, “Primitive scene”, Psychoanalysis vocabulary (1967), publisher: Presses Universitaires de France, Collection: Quadrige Dicos Poche, 2007 (ISBN  2130560504 )
  • Patrick Mahony, “from the history of infantile neurosis (the man with wolves)”, in Alain de Mijolla (dir.), International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (2002), 2 vol. (1.a/l and 2. m/z), Paris, Hachette-Littérature, 2005, p. 1-3 (ISBN  9782012791459 )
  • Sophie de Mijolla-Mellor, “Primitive scene (original scene)” (art.), In International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (dir .: Alain de Mijolla), 2 vol. (1.a/l and 2. m/z), Paris, Hachette-Littérature, 2005, coll. : Large plural, p. 1601-1602 (ISBN  2-0127-9145-X )
  • French Review of Psychoanalysis , 2010/4 (vol. 74): “Primitive scene”, Presses Universitaires de France, 2010.
  • Élisabeth Roudinesco and Michel Plon, “Primitive (or original) scene”, Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (1997), Paris, Librairie Arthème Fayard, 2011, p. 1389 (ISBN  978-2-253-08854-7 )

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