The undead mother : psychoanalytic explorations of masculinity, femininity, and matricide

252 Pages·2002·9.537 MB·English

by  Wieland, Christina

THE UNDEAD MOTHER
Psychoanalytic explorations of
masculinity, femininity,
and matricide
Christina Wieland
KARNAC
LONDON NEW YORK
First published in 2000 by
Rebus Press
Reprinted 2002 by
H. Karnac (Books) Ltd
6 Pembroke Buildings
London NW 10 6RE
Chapter 9 of this book first appeared as 'Beauty and the Beast: the father's
unconscious and the riddle of femininity', in The British Journal ofPsychotherapy,
Vol. 8, No. 2.
Chapter 10 was first published as 'The goodenough mother and the use of the object
in women', in Winnicott Studies, no. 9
All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the
publisher.
ISBN: 1 85575 913 6
Printed and bound by Antony Rowe Ltd, Eastbourne
To my parents

And what is now becoming apparent in the most
everyday things and in the whole of our society and
our culture is that, at a primal level, they function
on the basis of matricide.
-Luce Irigaray, 'The Bodily Encounter with the
Mother' (Irigaray 1991: 36)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many thanks to Karl Figlio, who read and commented on the
manuscript of this book, over many years, and whose insightful
and encouraging comments made this book possible; to Duncan
Barford, my editor, for his constructive criticism, and for his
detailed and thorough editing of the manuscript; to Kirsty Hall,
my publisher, for her courteous and unobtrusive help; to my
family, for their support and patience during the long period of
gestation; to my students and trainees, for all the helpful dis-
cussions I have had with them; and to all my patients.
A NOTE ON TEXTS
Quotations and references to Freud are given according to the
Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund
Freud. 24 Vols. Translated and edited by James Strachey in col-
laboration with Anna Freud, assisted by Alix Strachey and Alan
qson. London: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-
Analysis; New York: Norton, 1953-1974.
CONTENTS
Introduction
1. Clytemnestra and Count Dracula
2. Matricide and the Oedipus Complex
3. Masculinity and Matricide
4. Masculinity, Femininity, and the Death Instinct
5. Freud and Femininity
6. Mothers and Daughters
7. Matricide and the Mother-Daughter Relationship
8. The Father-Daughter Romance
9. Beauty and the Beast: The Father-Daughter
Relationship
10. Aggression and Femininity
11. Two Women in the Consulting-Room
12. The Search for an Alternative Space
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX

Introduction
Look there! See him! See him at last!
Watch every doorway, lest the murderer
Steal away and escape unpunished!
Once again he has found protection;
Closely clinging to the immortal
Goddess's image, that he offers
His life for trial, for the dead of his land.
No hope can rescue him.
A mother's blood once spilt
None can restore again. (Aeschylus 1986: 15)
This is a book about matricide, about matricide and separation
from the mother, about matricide and gender, matricide and
destructiveness. It began as an exploration of femininity but, as
it became apparent to me that femininity can only be under-
stood in relation to masculinity, an exploration into masculinity
became necessary. This led me to look in detail at Freud's theo-
ry of the development of masculinity through the castration
complex and the dissolution of the Oedipus complex, and to his
theory of femininity as a deviation from this basic model. Thus
the starting point of this book is classical Freudian theory seen
and re-interpreted through myths, novels, fairy tales and clini-
cal material. The understanding which emerges (always within
Western culture) is of a masculine psychic structure that is
founded on a psychic murder, the murder of the early mother,
and the subsequent elevation of the father to custodian of the
psyche. The feminine psyche emerges as a response to this mas-
culine terror of the mother.
The complementarity of masculinity and femininity are
taken for granted in this study. In other words, I see rnasculini-
ty and femininity as constructed within the mind, as comple-
mentary opposites, and as mutual projections and phantasies
which define themselves in relation to one another.
Consequently, an understanding of masculinity is essential to an