A Review of Literature on Freudian Concepts within the Scope of Object Relations: A Case of Orally Fixated Hysteria and the Therapy Process

Year 2017, Volume: 4 Issue: 2, 26 - 41, 01.06.2017

Fazilet Canbolat

https://doi.org/10.31682/ayna.470707

Cited By: 2

Abstract

Hysteria can be counted as the basement of all classical psychoanalytic work, considering that
Freud discovered the presence of “unconscious phantasy” through studying on his famous case of
Anna O. who had hysterical symptoms (Fenichel, 1945). The authentic conception of hysteria was on
conversions, and it indicated that unexpressed and forbidden sexual phantasy is the main cause of hysteria
(Freud, 1905/1999). Throughout the time, the diagnosis of hysteria has been handled in different styles;
the theoreticians, after Freud, avoided sexuality and conceptualized hysteria from a perspective closer to
borderline. Indeed, recently according to psychodynamic theoreticians, oedipal fixation results in hysterical
character; hysterical personality disorder is more related to dyadic mother-child relationship; and borderline
personality organization with hysterical features is directly related to oral issues (Baumbacher & Amini,
1981, as cited in Gabbard, Beck & Holmes, 2005). The definition and the generation of the disease are
interpreted differently; therefore, a conceptual controversy is emanated. However, when Freud’s theory
is evaluated as a whole, his idea of “a binary fixation in hysteria both at oral and oedipal levels” may be a
solution for this controversy.
In 1933, Freud declared that the first love object of a girl is the mother but then her final object
choice becomes the father. Regarding a girl, he stated that “almost everything that we find later in her
relation to her father was already present in their earlier attachment and has been transferred subsequently
onto her father”; and he added that “we cannot understand women unless we appreciate this phase of their
pre-Oedipus attachment to their mother.” (as cited in Fiorini & Rose, 2010, p. 15).
Congruently, an orally fixated hysteric case, the case of Mrs. E., was analyzed in the current paper
by trying to understand Freud’s notions of development; oedipal stage in conjunction with the oral stage.
With this subject in mind, first of all the diagnosis was debated; secondly the general characteristics of
Freud’s theory were given with the accompany of his ideas related to object relations, pathology and
psychotherapy; and lastly the case of Mrs. E. and the therapy process with her were described in the light of
Freudian concepts.

Keywords

Freud, psychoanalysis, object relations, histrionic personality, hysteria, borderline

Nesne İlişkileri Kapsamında Freudyen Konseptler üzerine bir Literatür Taraması: Oral Saplanımlı bir Histeri Vakası ve Terapi Süreci

Abstract

Zaman içerisinde histeri tanısı farklı biçimlerde ele alınmıştır. Freud’dan sonraki bazı teorisyenler cinselliği göz ardı edip, histeriyi sınır-durum bozukluğa daha yakın bir perspektifle ele almışlardır. Hastalığın tanımı ve gelişimi farklı biçimlerde yorumlanmış, bu sebeple kavramsal uyuşmazlıklar ortaya çıkmıştır. Ancak, Freud’un teorisi bir bütün olarak değerlendirildiğinde, onun “histeride oral ve ödipal düzeylerde ikili bir saplanma” olabileceğine dair düşüncesi bu uyuşmazlığa bir çözüm getirebilir. Benzer şekilde, bu makalede hem oral hem de ödipal dönemlerde saplanım yaşamış bir histeri vakası olabileceği düşünülen E. Hanım, Freud’un gelişime dair görüşlerinin bir bütün olarak değerlendirilmesi yoluyla ele alınmış, oral ve ödipal süreçler birlikte analiz edilmiştir. Bu amaçla ilk olarak tanı üzerine tartışılmış, daha sonra Freud’un teorisinin genel özellikleri onun nesne ilişkilerine dair görüşleriyle birlikte aktarılmıştır. Son olarak ise E. Hanım vakası ve terapi süreci Freudyen konseptler ışığında anlaşılmaya çalışılmıştır

Keywords

Freud, nesne ilişkileri, histeri, sınır-durum bozukluk

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