The Paternal Function in Anorexia Nervosa

The role of the father, both flesh-and-blood and symbolic, is explored in a subset of families of patients with anorexia nervosa. In these families the mother’s narcissistic investment in her child makes separation-individuation difficult. A factor potentially influencing whether the child goes on to develop anorexia nervosa is the strength of the paternal function, which optimally helps the child learn how to appropriately deploy his aggression in the service of separation-individuation and as a means of developing “the experience of agency”: the phenomenological experience of oneself as having an intentional impact. The role of the paternal function in developing the experience of agency is illuminated by the metaphor of rough-and-tumble play, which encapsulates the kind of experience with early objects that facilitates or forecloses the child’s capacity for experiencing agency. In the families of these patients, the father is frequently described as passive or absent and the paternal function as compromised, which arguably leads the anorexic-to-be to relegate his experience of agency to his body, which he subjugates through omnipotent control.

Wild Pear Trees, Patrimonial Legacies: Father-Son Relationship in Nuri Bilge Ceylan's The Wild Pear Tree

This article analyzes the father-son relationship in Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s latest film The Wild Pear Tree (2018), which tells the story of a son who desires a life as unlike his father’s narrow, provincial life as possible, only to find himself following in his father’s footsteps almost against his will. Drawing upon Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, this article examines the film as an oedipal drama that portrays the predicament of a son who grapples with an ineffectual, humiliated father that fails to embody the paternal function. It undertakes to show how the father-son conflict eventually culminates in the father’s transformation from an object of contempt into an identificatory ideal for his son, who becomes heir to a legacy of disillusionment and thwarted hopes.

PRESENÇA PATERNA E CONSTRUÇÃO DA ILUSÃO DE UNIDADE A PARTIR DAS TEORIAS DE FREUD E WINNICOTT

Resumo: O artigo objetiva demonstrar que Winnicott destaca, em um de seus últimos textos, a importância da presença paterna nos momentos mais arcaicos de construção subjetiva ao inserir a sensação de ilusão de unidade que sustenta o processo de diferenciação entre o bebê e sua mãe em prol do alcance da individuação pessoal. Para tal, apresenta os elementos clínicos que indicaram a Freud a necessidade de elaboração do conceito de pulsão sexual, o qual indica que tanto pulsão quanto objeto, a princípio, se mostram marcados pelas parcialidades. Debruça-se sobre a proposta winnicottiana de deslocar o início do exercício da função paterna do momento edípico para os primórdios do desenvolvimento emocional e propor que a presença do Pai produz efeitos significativos tanto sobre a mãe (apoiando-a em suas tarefas diárias) quanto sobre o bebê, apresentando-se como primeiro objeto total que pode ser usado como matriz para a construção da ilusão de unidade pessoal, capaz de ultrapassar as parcialidades pulsionais.Palavras-chave: Presença Paterna. Individuação. Winnicott. Abstract: The article aims to demonstrate the thesis that Winnicott highlights, in one of his last texts, the importance of the paternal presence in the most archaic moments of subjective construction by inserting the feeling of illusion of unity that sustains the process of differentiation between the baby and his mother in favor of reaching personal individuation. To this end, it presents the clinical elements that indicated Freud the need to elaborate the concept of sexual drive, which indicates that both drive and object, at first, are marked by partialities. It focuses on the theory postulated by Winnicott which, shifting the beginning of the exercise of the paternal function from the oedipal moment to the beginnings of emotional development. The theory proposes that the presence of the Father produces significant effects on mother ‘s mental register (supporting her in their daily tasks) and on baby’s emotional state, by presenting him as the first total object which can be used as a matrix for the construction of the illusion of personal unity and capable of overcoming the instinctual partialities.

Maternal and paternal functions in the formation of subjectivity: Kristeva and Lacan

The Kristeva–Lacan relationship has been a difficult one, with commentators tending to either collapse the former into the latter or insist on an absolute division wherein Kristeva emphasizes the maternal function over Lacan’s privileging of the symbolic paternal law. In contrast, I argue that Kristeva’s actual position regarding Lacan and, by extension, the semiotic–symbolic relation is far more complicated than even her defenders often realize, before turning to the role(s) that the paternal function play(s) in Lacan’s analysis of the psyche’s movement into the symbolic to show that nevertheless Kristeva’s critique is based on a number of key misreadings regarding Lacan’s conception of (1) the paternal function, (2) the maternal–paternal relation and (3) the movement from the pre-symbolic to the symbolic. Rather than operating through a straightforward binary opposition between a maternal and a (privileged, repressive) paternal function, Lacan actually claims, in a similar vein to Kristeva, that the transmission of the symbolic law occurs through a complex and heterogeneous process wherein both the maternal and paternal functions are multiple and bound to and expressive of the other. This sheds light on the Kristeva–Lacan relationship, defends Lacan against the charge that he affirms a straightforward logic of patriarchy, identifies the multidimensionality inherent in both Kristeva’s and Lacan’s notions of the maternal and paternal functions and shows how the intertwinement of both functions aids the formation of subjectivity generally and the child’s symbolic acquisition specifically.

‘Hopelessly devoted to you’: An examination of Winnicott’s concept of primary maternal preoccupation in the identity and practice of male group analysts

The rationale for this study is to explore whether or not the Winnicottian concept of primary maternal preoccupation fits into the identities and features in what male group analysts reflect on and resonate with upon ‘giving birth to’ and conducting a group. A qualitative, individual case-study approach was employed to attempt to discover and understand how male group analysts make sense of Winnicott’s fundamental concept. Wondering and thinking about how a male group analyst ‘holds’ both the maternal and paternal function in a group is also being thought about to ascertain the impact of these features on clinical practice. Exploring the concept of primary maternal preoccupation lends towards a strong focus on the relationship between mother and baby, mirrored in and seen as a metaphor for the relationship between the group analyst and the group members. Doron argues that in disclosing her depth of feeling towards the changing group membership in the group she was conducting, she identified strongly with the state of primary maternal preoccupation. This study will explore the range of feelings associated with the primary maternal preoccupation male group analysts associate with. Three qualified group analysts with five years’ minimum post-qualification experience, with whom there were no boundary issues, were interviewed in a semi-structured interview format to ascertain and develop this understanding. A phenomenological research method was chosen to analyse the collated data from the three individual interviews. Following completion of the three interviews, the participants’ texts were analysed resulting in five overall themes being developed. Potential wider scopes and application of the question, potential clinical implications of the topic under discussion and the potential for developing a theoretical discussion in group analysis on what might be coined ‘paternal preoccupation’ were illuminated and discussed.