Notes on Critical Examinations of the Primal Scene Concept

IN THE RECENT GERMAN LITERATURE there has been no paper devoted especially to the primal scene. Where the topic is mentioned, it is not given much importance, and there is agreement with Freud's original writing. This is particularly noteworthy in view of the fact that in the United States many treatises on the primal scene have been published during the last ten years, indicating an obvious interest in this topic, and there is no lack of critical discussions of Freud's statement.

Why would a subject to which Freud attributed substantial importance be treated and judged so differently? One would assume that the primal scene is equally ubiquitous in both countries. Parents are advised by "progressive" educators to let children take part in their sex life in the hope this will prevent sexual disturbances later on. This and similar advice cannot be simply discarded as extreme. In Germany this advice has been applied predominantly by fringe groups only. Yet in the United States this practice is of longer standing, and conceivably exerts a stronger influence on the sociocultural atmosphere than in Germany. It seems more difficult to extricate oneself from such an atmosphere, which conveys the so-called Zeitgeist, than from a delineated, palpable ideology. An adaptation to it often occurs slowly and without special awareness. Even the analyst cannot