Citation

Winship G. Br. J. Psychother. 2009; 25(1): 24-38.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1752-0118.2008.01099.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In locating the testicles on the object relations map, their function (actual and symbolic) in Sophocles' three plays (Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone), is considered as a basis for a theory of the testes as transgenerational containers of pathology. Two clinical vignettes are presented where the testes were salient in the course of psychoanalytic psychotherapy; firstly, in the treatment of a manic depressive patient who had developed testicular cancer after the birth of his son, and secondly, in a male patient with gender dysphoria who was seen for psychotherapy prior to operative gender re-assignment. It is argued that the psychobiological role of the testicles has been largely overlooked in psychoanalytic theory. Implications for future consideration of the testes are considered.

Keywords

object relations; psychotherapy; testes