To Outdo or Undo? Siblings and Hysteria

In a form of oedipal sibling triangle (Sharpe and Rosenblatt, 1994), a child is recruited by a parent into a spousal position and becomes a primary oedipal rival and often prize for a sibling or siblings. I have found that such configurations are highly related to hysteria. Parents with hysterical conflicts often stimulate these triangles. The resultant sibling relationships—intensely ambivalent, threatening, and guilt-ridden—subsequently play a central role in engendering hysterical suffering. In both favored and nonfavored children, strivings become inhibited, guarded, or fraught. A case example in which an oedipal sibling triangle was the focus of treatment illustrates these points. It also illuminates the necessity, vitality, and pitfalls of addressing sibling transference and countertransference, which often evoke annihilation anxiety. Traditional psychoanalytic understandings of the etiology of hysteria powerfully join with recent conceptualizations relating siblings with hysteria (J. Mitchell, 2000b, 2003) in oedipal sibling triangles featuring a chosen child.