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This essay centers on the preoedipal phase of the psychosexual development of man and particularly upon the detrimental effects of an overly possessive mother. Though such an approach results in a one-sided emphasis on damaging maternal influences, it puts into clearer light the more or less disguised feelings of guilt universally present for a crime we all committed in fantasy. This serious offense consists of killing the smothering mother, who fully or partially, fails to recognize the individuality of her offspring. This matricidal theme will be first explored as it is present in the Jesus-myth, then re-examined in a re-evaluation of the primal crime as described by Freud. The same theme allows us to come to a better understanding of the universal appeal of one of Dostoevski's most intriguing novels, and to advance a highly probable explanation for witch-burning in a historical perspective.
Finally, in the last part of this paper, a clinical case of frigidity and compulsive masturbation is discussed. Interpretations in terms of matricide brought about, among other things, a significant change in the direction of a mature heterosexual adjustment in the patient.
The first part of this paper puts forward the view that the Jesus-myth, notwithstanding oedipal elements, is something more than another version of the oedipal myth. It is a preoedipal myth: that is, a separate myth epitomizing a preoedipal phase of psychosexual development.
Freud5 calls the preoedipal phase the period of exclusive attachment of the child to the mother. Van der Leeuw, in the paper “The Preoedipal Phase of the Male,”17 says that: