Mother Nature and Father Time: Oedipal Imbalance and the Premature Structuring of Reality in Compulsive Sexual Behaviour

The author proposes that particular oedipal dynamics in individuals suffering with compulsive sexual behaviours tend to be characterized by imbalance between maternal and paternal functions. The maternal object is experienced as overwhelming and potentially annihilating. The paternal object is relatively weak and incapable of moderating fear of symbiosis. There is failure to develop a triangular space within the mind to enable the capacity to apprehend psychic reality and to relate. Compulsive sexual behaviours are defined as a series of compelling sexualized enactments, which function as a ‘curative device’ to prevent psychic collapse. Due to a lack of adequate internalized paternal function, perverse enactments signify premature attempts to structure reality. Enactment mitigates emotional contact and manifests within the here-and-now of treatment. The psychotherapist has to contend with enticements and pressures to act, sometimes in a retaliatory way. The setting or frame, representing the paternal function, is an arena for these dynamics to be manifest. There is an inducement to be drawn towards ‘management’ rather than the ‘being with’ of the maternal function.