The Sadistic Primal Scene and its Influence on the Oedipal Complex

Psychoanalytical concepts

Abstract

The Primal Scene is a complex multilevel construct undergoing numerous transformations at the early stages of the subject's development, because of which the archaic, pre-oedipal Primal Scene, as it approaches the stage of the Oedipal conflict, acquires a more neurotic, mature form. However, there is a different way of development chosen by the psyche in conditions when a rough, threatening reality takes place of phantasmatic activity. Destructive, deadly relationships between parents, in which the child is often involved, contribute to the endowment of the Primal Scene with predominantly sadistic characteristics, which does not allow the dialectic of phantasms to unfold, because of which the first scene acquires an oedipal appearance. This, in turn, leads to the formation of ant-oedipal phantasms that prevent the overcoming of the Oedipal complex.