Commentary 11

Jacobs draws attention to character traits that are manifested in Mr B's communication: ‘Mr B is also subtly, and not so subtly, provocative and mocking, often making a caricature of analysis and analysts’. I think that the symptom of wearing women's undergarments, becoming exited and masturbating is related to these traits. When establishing a fictitious feminisation, both the masculinity of the father and the femininity of the mother are, by identification, caricatured. This is a manic defence which serves to alter the paternal and maternal identifications, and which makes them seem ridiculous.

My first impression is that the patient, as Jacobs points out, is trying to work through oedipal feelings in relation to other bonds which the analyst has. Jacobs puts forward two alternative hypotheses: competitive feelings with the female patient for the analyst's love and/or rivalry with the male analyst for the attractive woman who is ‘at his side’; this may have caused a regressive fantasy of being a woman. If I had been in the analyst's position, I maybe would have begun my investigation from the same starting point, exploring possible oedipal fantasies in the transference. But, shortly afterwards, I would have included a mutative interpretation (Strachey, 1934) taking the emphasis away from exciting the analyst and shifting this wish towards the parents. I would have investigated some factors from his life history which made him feel that he lacks a father and which determined the stagnation in the development of his sexuality. I also would have explored maternal transferences that I think are of prime importance at this moment: his possible rivalry with his younger sister (the female patient) for the love of their mother, who prefers to have the family gathering in her daughter's house.

The advantage of being able to see the session in its totality allows me to explore another idea which, I think, was hinted at from the outset. Mr B mentions