Symbolization of the Primal Scene and Psychic Development.

Abstract

In this paper, the Primal Scene (PrS)-a par excellence primal phantasy, is considered in its function as a central scheme of the primordial psychic world, a kind of core template, which not only constraints the symbolizing urges of mental life "into certain channels" (Freud 1938, p. 187) but also canalizes, contains, and organizes them, thus furthering their elaboration. Through extended clinical vignettes taken from different phases of a long analysis, this symbolizing and channeling function, under the aegis of the PrS-enhancing and containing at the same time-is demonstrated, as the material is gradually transitioning from under-represented, archaic psychic derivatives to repressible, sublimated (e.g., symbolically higher) organized imagos.