The Preoedipal Attachment to the Mother a Clinical Study1

That the sexual development of women is more complicated than that of men is generally well known through the writings of Freud, Jones, Fenichel, Deutsch, Lampl-de Groot, Greenacre, and others. The complexity arises during the phallic phase in regard to object choice and genital zone. For the boy the object, the mother, and the genital zone, the penis, remains the same. The girl, however, normally renounces her original genital zone, the clitoris, in favour of a new one, the vagina. In addition she repudiates her original object, the mother, and turns to her father, first for a penis and later for a child.

Various outcomes arising from this complex development in the girl have been reported. Among these are the persistence of the oedipal attachment to the father into adult life; the belief in an illusory penis; bisexual identifications; the effects on superego formation; etc. In his paper on 'Female Sexuality' Freud (10) carefully and precisely emphasized the importance of the pre-oedipal attachment of the girl for her mother. In particular he cautioned that one should not underestimate the duration of this pre-oedipal attachment. He wrote, 'One has to give due weight to the possibility that many a woman may remain arrested at the original mother attachment, and never properly achieve the change over to men'.

The case which I wish to present is of such a woman.

PRESENTING ILLNESS

Mrs. R., a short, slender, plain woman, was in her early thirties when she first came for treatment. At the time of her initial interview she appeared very tense, irritable and demanding. She immediately insisted on lying on the couch, saying, 'There is no need for any preliminary discussion'. After some fruitless attempts at asking her in the usual manner about her problems I yielded; whereupon she burst into tears. Lying on the couch was to her assurance that I would accept her as a patient.

She then tearfully spoke of her unsatisfactory marriage of ten years duration.