The Lethic Phallus: Rethinking the Misery of Oedipus

Schmidt-Hellerau, Cordelia

doi:10.1002/j.2167-4086.2008.tb00358.x

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Later writers built on these foundations to expand our understanding of neuroses and narcissistic pathology. Cordelia Schmidt‐Hellerau (2008), in her exploration of drive theory, notes that the issue of Oedipus' deprivation does not receive any attention in Oedipal theory. Her point is well taken.…”

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confidence: 99%

Incorporating a concept of altruism into psychoanalytic theory

Nielsen¹

2010

Appl Psychoanal Studies

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Section: Competitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incorporating a concept of altruism into psychoanalytic theory

Nielsen¹

2010

Appl Psychoanal Studies

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“…He argues that there are some men who “have no interest in being or becoming men” (p. 28) and thus remain stagnant by renouncing the inherent risks of pursuing their desires; men who, instead of aiming to permanently possess their desires for satisfaction, say only “no” to these desires. Using a clinical example, analytic therapists will recognize such patients who, like Schmidt-Hellerau’s (2008) men with a “lethic phallus,” cannot bear the experience of limitation and primordial vulnerability that masculinity is founded upon and instead, find meaning in what Lacan termed the Imaginary register or Freud’s purified pleasure ego, often taking the form where disease or weakness binds one’s objects while disguising the impenetrable fantasy that Moss described as “I lack nothing” (p. 35). Hence, the “masculine masquerade of ‘having’ the phallus” (p. 38)—through which the desired object can be imagined as attainable—is retreated from and such men cannot go after potential objects nor feel themselves to be or to become a ‘man.’…”

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Review of Thirteen ways of looking at a man: Psychoanalysis and masculinity.

Diamond¹

2013

Psychoanalytic Psychology

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This scholarly yet incisive and accessible book addresses the unstable notion of masculinity and the ways in which both hetero-and homosexual men seek to shape themselves in relation to the precarious nature of being a man. The complexities of male gender identity are examined from several psychoanalytic vantage points, including classical and modern Freudian, object relations, Lacan and post-Lacanian, and contemporary, postmodern relational and intersubjective theory. The writing is enriched by the author's willingness to share several of his own formative experiences in facing the daunting task of searching for ways to grow up as a man with a mind of his own.Moss' short book comprises selected published articles and chapters (often reworked) and newly written personal anecdotes along with a prologue and epilogue. While integrating various psychoanalytic perspectives, the author grounds his understanding in a clear, modern Freudian viewpoint that emphasizes the body, drives, the mind, and unconscious mental work. In addressing the role of drives, Moss illuminates the significance of this Freudian bedrock, particularly for a contemporary generation of intersubjectively oriented analysts and mental health workers who often simply reject or may have otherwise been deprived of understanding this bodily based facet of metapsychology.At the same time, however, by privileging what Freud grouped under the Platonic entity Eros, which by 1920 consisted of the sexual, self-preservative, and narcissistic drives in their essential function of binding together or fusion, the indispensible duality of the drives is not made explicit. Whether the second component is taken up in terms of destructive drives, the death instinct, return to inorganic matter, or the significance of diffusion bound by the power of the erotic component, Freudian thinking rests on grounding psychic life in the omnipresence of conflict between these two main drive forces. Consequently, Moss' otherwise advanced Freudian construction runs the risk of being misread as idealizing a more politically correct or even sentimentalizing version of masculinity that fails to tackle the essentially psychoanalytic project of addressing the unconscious, more elemental resistances that masculinity displays to being civilized, tamed, and optimized, as often evident in treatment. I emphasize this issue because such a misreading would be partic-Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Michael J. Diamond, PhD, ABPP,

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Follow the Fox: Edgar A. Levenson’s Pursuit of Psychoanalytic Process

Foehl¹

2008

The Psychoanalytic Quarterly

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The author examines Edgar A. Levenson's argument as presented in his two seminal texts (1972, 1983), placing this argument in the context of our work today. Levenson has contributed to a profound shift in our experience of psychoanalysis. By giving priority to psychoanalytic process, he spelled out the implications entailed in the fact that patient and analyst continually influence each other in clinical work. The ongoing relevance of Levenson's work is evident first in his location of therapeutic action beyond understanding, that is, in the spontaneous interaction between patient and analyst, and second in his critique of our uses of abstraction, explanation, and theory.

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The Lethic Phallus: Rethinking the Misery of Oedipus

Cited by 6 publications

References 13 publications

Incorporating a concept of altruism into psychoanalytic theory

Incorporating a concept of altruism into psychoanalytic theory

Review of Thirteen ways of looking at a man: Psychoanalysis and masculinity.

Follow the Fox: Edgar A. Levenson’s Pursuit of Psychoanalytic Process

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