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The moderator, Valentin Barenblit, introduced the panel before a large and receptive audience, noting that the papers present an important interaction between psychoanalysis and other disciplines that stress social and cultural phenomena.
The paper by Elizabeth Tabak de Bianchedi, Marcelo Bianchedi, Julia Braun, Maria L. Pelento & Janine Puget, ‘Mega-offer: extension or restriction of sexuality’, was the first presentation. They noted that there have been changes in what is generally thought of as public or private sexuality and that today we face problems that relate to the inadequacy of our theories for understanding new clinical situations. Sexual intercourse has become public and one can observe sexual practices, which were done clandestinely in the past. Much can be ‘consumed’ sexually today.
The authors call these new sexual opportunities ‘mega-offer’, a term inspired by Amati Sas's use of the term ‘mega-deaths’. Sexual mega-offer now characterises our ‘liberal’ society, resulting in choices made on the basis of consumerism and the wish to belong rather than free choice. When the mega-offer intrudes into privacy it produces alienation.
The primal scene also takes on a different meaning as a result of cultural and social forces. The primal scene has different transformations. In the case of the Wolf Man what is highlighted is the sadistic and anal components, while in the oedipal period there is an emphasis on phallic/castration. More recently the primal scene has changed, diluting its violent character.
There is greater complexity in our understanding of the primal scene in post-Freudian theorists. Melanie Klein's concept of unconscious phantasy and object-representations that exist from the beginning of life emphasise a more dramatic aspect of the primal scene, emphasising feelings rather than aggression. Donald Meltzer included more characters in the primal scene, not only two as Freud conjectured or three as Klein thought, but five or six characters i