Citation

Koritar E. Am. J. Psychoanal. 2013; 73(4): 394-404.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis, Publisher Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1057/ajp.2013.24

PMID

24309688

Abstract

The author demonstrates, through clinical case illustration, how sexual perversion is linked to traumatic early separation-individuation processes. The illusion of fusion with a seductive and gratifying mother-introject led a young man into the risky business of unprotected gay sex with strangers. The pleasure-seeking child and enabling mother narrative was played out in the transference/counter-transference relationship threatening to pervert the analysis. Authoritative limit setting re-introduced a potent, previously castrated, father figure into the patient's inner world and gave the patient impetus to separate from the undifferentiated mix-up between mother and child, resulting in containment of dangerous sexual behaviors.

Language: en