title: To be born was the death of him: a clinical study of a self that might have been but never got born.
abstract: In this paper, using a pluralistic perspective on the psyche, I consider theoretical formulations concerned with the development of the self in relation to the environment. This includes discussion about how the infant interacts with its maternal environment before birth and how observation of the foetus in the womb and infant research have important implications affecting our understanding of adult psychopathology. I briefly look at the object-related nature of religious experience and the concept of the development of a representation of God. Furthermore, I explore the object-related nature of the Laius myth as the deeper realm and the homo-erotic component in the Oedipal conflict, with emphasis on the link between oracular literalism and literalizing obsessionality. Finally, I show how all of these elements manifested in the course of my work with a very disturbed male patient in whom the transferential relationship uncovered a psychopathic pocket; and how my life was put in danger when his defences took the form of an impulse to kill: he became murderous.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wheeley
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D004532:Ego; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007602:Jungian Theory; D007743:Labor, Obstetric; D008297:Male; D009769:Object Attachment; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D010553:Personality Development; D011247:Pregnancy; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D014473:Unconscious, Psychology