Infantile Sexuality Revisited: The Agony and Ecstasy of the Mother—Infant Couple

This article explores the relationship between primitive somatopsychic states of excitation and ecstasy in the early infant-mother nursing dyad and similar states of excitation and ecstasy occurring in sexual intercourse of the adult couple. Clinical material demonstrates the close link between early infantile breast experience and adult genital arousal, illustrating aspects of success or failure in integration of body-sensation states as the core of the self. Failure to master primitive somatopsychic excitations in infancy is held to be relevant in understanding intolerance of excitation in certain adult sexual dysfunctions. This understanding is elaborated to include intolerance of emotional arousal (excitement) in the “analytic intercourse” as well. Maternal functions of containing and modulating excitation and arousal states are proposed as therapeutic interventions on the model of the mother as a “container” for infantile anxieties and excitement, employing empathic identification with her baby in the form of “reverie.” “Holding” capacities in mother and therapist facilitate the possibility of integration of psychic and somatic states, allowing a potential for the partners to experience excitement in the interest of creative intercourse, both mental and physical.