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March 18, 1968. THE FATAL GIFTS OF MEDEA. Shelley Orgel, M.D. and Leonard Shengold, M.D.
The authors use the myth of Medea as a prototype of a certain type of parent-child relationship in which the giving of magical gifts is a major part. (Medea, a witch who can bestow magical beneficent gifts, also destroys her enemies with poisonous gifts.) In this type of relationship the child's primary narcissism is invested in a parent and what is received as a magical gift is a body part which restores to the child an image of narcissistic perfection. The maintenance of such a relationship between mother and child impairs ego development as it prevents formation of separate self-representations and development of object relations with nonincestuous objects. The authors present four clinica l examples of this type of mother-child relationship.