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Sex sterotypes, clinical observations, and psychoanalytic theory of sex differences are presented. Stereotypes show differences in areas of inhibition and clinical observations, differences related to the phallic and genital phases in psychosexual development. Divergent analytical views on the sexual development of boys and girls are discussed.
Adolescent pathology should be viewed as a breakdown in the development process, and it is a breakdown which takes place at puberty or during adolescence. It seems that the acute breakdown at puberty is potentially the more serious. This breakdown in the development process is understood in relation to the function of adolescence developmentally, and is linked to the establishment of a final sexual organization by the end of adolescence. Clinically, there are certain problems which are specific to the adolescent patient. Core fantasies in adolescence tell us the direction of the person's psychosexual development and the potential of abnormality. In the transference neurosis of the adolescent patient, the development breakdown has to be re-experienced and re-enacted with the analyst, but it is the core fantasies which contain the clue to the nature of the pathology and to the direction of the abnormality in terms of sexual functioning and of object relationships.
Chronic anxiety in a female patient was understood to have multiple meanings in relating to the mother through the fantasy of a symbiotic union. The origins of the fantasy are traced to the patient's poor relationship with a preoccupied and unavailable mother. The fantasy underwent several transformations under the influence of subsequent developmental phases and the special role of aggression in its elaboration. This paper illustrates the reciprocal interactions between separation-individuation and psychosexual development and their influence on the development of the self and gender identity, defenses against aggression, development of a sadomasochistic style, and transference-countertransference interactions. The symbiotic fantasy is seen as carrying the imprints of all developmental phases and as having multiple functions.
Although the psychosexual development of patients with Klinefelter's syndrome is often delayed, the sexual identity is generally male. This paper reports on a 56-year-old patient whose initially good psychosocial integration gave way to a transsexual development with a meanwhile clearcut female sexual identity as the consequence of a personal crisis situation. This case report illustrates the interaction of biological and psychodynamic etiological factors.
The present study aimed to detect psychosexual conflicts in patients with eating disorders using the Word Association Test which tests the perceptual sensitivity of the subject to conflictual words. We also expected patients to show concern about food and eating. 19 anorexic patients, 21 bulimic patients, and 20 control subjects without eating disorders provided associations to four groups of words: psychosexual words, food words, emotionally loaded words, and neutral words. Reaction times were recorded. Analysis showed that anorexic patients were slower than controls in responding to food-related words but bulimic patients were not significantly different from controls. Anorexic patients reacted more slowly than controls to psychosexual words. Bulimic patients were also somewhat slower than controls but faster than anorexic patients; however, these differences were not statistically significant. Results are congruent with research that points to sexual problems and delays in the psychosexual development of anorexic patients and to a lesser extent of bulimic patients.
Through the case study of the analytic psychotherapy of an adopted child, the authors illustrate the specificity of identification problems, in particular towards the paternal imago within an oedipal context. The transferential-countertransferential conditions that enable to consider the psychosexual development, in relation to trauma and adoption, within the framework of the therapeutic relationship will also be considered.
This article examines methodological problems and unacknowledged moral judgements in Freud's theory of homosexuality. Freud raises the issue of bisexuality in connection with the origins of homosexuality. When critically examined, the theory of bisexuality reduces to a theory of the capacity to be attracted to either females or males, and in that sense explains little about the origin of exclusive homosexual orientation. Freud's further investigations into the origin of homosexuality, strictly speaking, do not provide a clear explanation of sexual exclusivity. Finally, it is argued that Freud's moral assumptions color the nature of his conclusions. At the very least, without morally justifying his procedure, he transforms the course of psychosexual development as determined by psychoanalysis into a moral imperative against which homosexuality is judged a fixated and immature state.
This article illustrates how the assessment of the level and degree of dependency in psychotherapy can be used as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool. Dependency varies with the stage of psychosexual development, with the degree and state of illness, and with the stage of treatment. Appropriate monitoring of this factor promotes optimal growth potential in the patient.
Sexual development and behavior of 771 Czech girls 16 to 18 years old had been investigated by two sexuologists during the period of 1986 till 1994. A standardized interview of 78 items had been applied in a setting of a rehabilitation facility in Franzensbad. The majority of probands were there for rehabilitation after appendectomy. There were 389 examinees (158 apprentices and 231 students) interviewed before "the velvet revolution" and 382 girls (159 apprentices and 223 students) in the course of the years 1990 to 1994. A comparison of these two groups revealed a definite change in the psychosexual development of girls in the Czech society after the "Velvet Revolution". Particularly the motivation for the first coitus had changed. After November 1989 it was noticed that the answer "obliged her partner" had significantly decreased and the answer "wished it for myself" has substantially increased. Also in the group of probands with multiple sexual partners (21.5% of the sample) their average number decreased unexpectedly after "the Velvet Revolution".
The investigation involved 30 hysterical women, who were interviewed and who completed four questionnaires relating to: psychosexual development; attitude towards sexuality; sexual activity; and reactivity. Dysharmonic sexual development, and low levels of activity and reactivity in their sexual life was revealed. Contrasted with other groupings of female psychiatric patients, from a sexual point of view the female hysterical personality presents a special psychological case.
Until now psychoanalytic training and literature have hardly considered the transference love of homosexual patients. We summarized the scarce literature and related it to the background of our knowledge of heterosexual transference love. The discussion leaves no doubt that, like the heterosexual, homosexual transference love must be read on all levels of psychosexual development instead of reading it on only one and definitely not on an amorphous "preoedipal" level. This is particularly true for the level of the adult homosexual patient, as the case history demonstrates.
40 individuals with neuromuscular diseases were interviewed: twenty individuals with early onset of symptoms and a relatively rapid rate of progression of disease and twenty subjects with a slower rate of progression of disease. The data suggested that early onset of neuromuscular disease, together with a rapid rate of progression of the disease, result in more constricted psychosocial and psychosexual development and in more severe limitations on sexual activity. For both groups, the degree of physical limitations per se on sexual activity was less critical than was the impact of the disease on the social and psychological functioning of the individuals.
The authors conducted a study of nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT) in 125 healthy males aged 3 to 79 by means of EEG recordings to provide normative data on how general the phenomenon is, its range of charateristics, and how it is related to man's sexual function. The results indicate that NPT occurs consistently in a healthy male population, that its expression is significantly affected by age, that it is related to stage of psychosexual development, and that it is worthy of further investigation. Clinical experience indicates that it is a useful, objective method of discriminating among various types of biogenic and psychogenic impotence.
A sociological study was carried out among parents with children aged 2-11 years in order to evaluate their knowledge of psychosexual development and medical activity with regard to sexual education of their children. The results indicate scanty knowledge of special publications on sexual education: 54% parents never read such books, and 42% of those who read, do not use the information they get. One-third of parents consider that sexual education is not their responsibility. According to parents' opinions, TV remains the main source of knowledge of sex for their children. Less than half of respondents ever spoke to their children about sexual behavior. Hence, improvement of the knowledge of parents, particularly mothers, of psychosexual education of children is an important task.
Precocious puberty in girls has endocrinological as well as behavioral implications. We present data from a first systematic controlled follow-up study of 16 adolescent girls with a history of idiopathic precocious puberty (IPP) compared to closely pair-matched adolescent control subjects of comparable pubertal status and normal pubertal history. Findings in four areas of behavior are reported: Psychiatric sequelae: the IPP sample showed an increase in minor psychopathological symptoms. Psychosexual development: The IPP sample was advanced in sociosexual milestones, albeit mostly within the normal range for adolescents. Intelligence: IQ was not different from controls. However, school achievement was accelerated during childhood. Cognitive pattern: The IPP sample had lower spatial perception scores than controls.
The authors differentiate between deviant and nondeviant sexual delinquents and focus attention in particular on the forensic evaluation of deviantly conditioned delinquents. They describe some differences in the psychosexual development of deviant delinquents and some anamnestic facts which signalize a deviant structure of the sexual motivation system. They emphasize the necessity of a comprehensive examination of the delinquent, incl. thorough sex diagnosis, psychological diagnosis of the personality, a detailed analysis of controlling and recognizing ability of the time of the crime and they submit suggestions for health measures.
One of the motivational factors for suicide in adolescents is examined in light of gender identity issues and conflicts. It is proposed that difficulties in the formation of a cohesive gender identity are related to the adolescent's motivation to attempt suicide. This paper makes use of Fast's (1984) distinction between "event-centered" and "self-centered" experiences in order to explore problems in the formation of gender identity with reference to regression to earlier stages of psychosexual development. Physiological changes and regressive pull may lead the adolescent to the "event-centered" mode of experience. Thus one minor event may become the focus of the adolescent's gender and self identities. The adolescent may then have regressive omnipotent fantasies of being able to change gender identity through suicidal acts.
The clinical proposition that an ideal focus for intensive brief dynamic psychotherapy is an intra-psychic conflict rooted in oedipal pathology with circumscribed effects on personality functioning has been widely accepted a priori, without empirical validation. In this study 4 clinical raters assessed the 'degree of circumscribed conflict' and 'hypothesized psychosexual development level' from a dynamic evaluation interview. The variables were only marginally associated with DSM-III diagnoses. Within a subsample of 22 patients treated with intensive psychoanalytic technique, patients with whom a highly circumscribed conflict could be identified had the most favourable dynamic change 4 years after therapy.