Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0010726, Tue, 7 Dec 2004 13:23:25 -0800

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Fw: Sègur and Freud VN's childhoodreading
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----- Original Message -----
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
To: don barton johnson
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2004 3:08 AM
Subject: Sègur and Freud


For Freud, the "child-is-being-beaten" fantasy appears in a three-stage sequence in girls: (1) the fantasizer sees her father beating another child, her rival; (2) she is beaten by her father; (3) a father substitute such as a teacher is beating children, usually boys, and the fantasizer is present, as in the first stage, in the role of a spectator rather than as a participant. Although the first and third stages of the fantasy are consciously remembered, the second stage is not. It is the third stage that generally accompanies sexual arousal. Ultimately, Freud suggests that the beating fantasy condenses a girl's debased genital love for her father with punishment for her incestuous wishes. In contrast, for the boy, Freud posits only two stages. Although the conscious fantasy is one of being beaten by the mother (or other women), the unconscious fantasy, like that of the girls, is "I am being beaten by my father." Thus, Freud believed the boy's beating fantasy, like the girl's, was stoked by sexual love for the father. No stage similar to the girl's first stage was described for the boy.

In more general terms, Freud uses the "child-is-being-beaten" fantasy to explore the genesis and structure of fantasy, its developmental sequencing, and the interplay between unconscious and conscious fantasy, and he extends his discussion to encompass masochism and perversion. On Freud's "A Child is Being Beaten" Introduction by Ethel Spector Person

Dear Don,
My copy of Freud´s 1919 article in English is in my office and I tried "Googling" to get it and could not reach his text directly but just the introduction of an essay by Dr. E.Spector Person ( how about that for an apposite name if one thinks about Hugh Person´s plights?) .

Best,
Jansy
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