Back to Table of Contents
danger, and the superego as the heir of the Oedipus complex, with its largely unconscious self- punitive and ego-ideal components. As the id’s aggression feeds the self-punitive component of superego, id and superego pressure ego from both sides. This can manifest itself in the transference-resistance, which is thus linked to the sway of the id but also to the internal assault carried out by the superego. This assault underlies what Freud (1923) refers to as “negative therapeutic reaction”, i.e. a worsening in the treatment in which transference is the bearer of both excess and destructiveness, as explored later by such authors as André Green in “The Work of the Negative” (Green, 1993) and J.-B. Pontalis in “On the Basis of Counter- transference: the Dead and the Living Intertwined” (Pontalis, 1975) and in “No, Twice No” (Pontalis, 1979). Thus, the central role, played by the repetition of the repressed in the transference cannot not be limited to lived experiences for it pertains to psychic reality which comprises unconscious desires and the fantasies that are attached to them – the latter are ‘indestructible’ while repetition in the transference justifies the prominence given to the compulsion to repeat as defined already in “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” (Freud, 1920). II. B. Oedipus and Hamlet, two faces of the human experience in transference. Freud considers that the Oedipus Complex is deeply rooted in tragedy, an inevitable and deadly fate which lurks in human experience. “Oedipus Rex is what is known as a tragedy of destiny. Its tragic effect is said to lie in the contrast between the supreme will of the gods and the vain attempts of mankind to escape the evil that threatens them” (Freud, 1900b, p. 262; also 1900a). The gods represent the all-powerful parents, to whom the infant acknowledges his own helplessness. Tragedy refers to the feelings of human beings as they experience this complex and describes the essence of its constitution. According to Freud, the Oedipus complex refers to the inclination towards incestuous and parricidal actions to which all individuals are prone as a result of their archaic heritage. Freud claims that there must be a voice within us, which is prepared to acknowledge the compelling power of fate in the Oedipus. “His destiny moves us only because it might have been ours—because the oracle laid the same curse upon us before our birth as upon him” (Freud 1900b, p. 264). The Oedipus’ fable is fantasy’s response to those typical dreams (murdering the father, wedding the mother) and in the same way as adults experience them with disgust, the saga must also include horror and self-punishment. In Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex the basic wish-fantasy of the child is brought to light and realised as it is in dreams, whereas in Shakespeare’s Hamlet it remains repressed, and “—just as in the case of a neurosis—we only learn of its existence from its inhibiting consequences” (ibid, p. 264).
1057
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online