title: Purposive aspects of the erotic transference.
abstract: This paper illustrates the erotic transference of a male patient towards his female analyst and the pressures and resistances within the transference and counter-transference to act out sexually. The patient's desire to act out sexually is seen both as a form of repetition compulsion within the transference and, in its purposive aspect, as an expression of the patient's need to find a loving breast and an empathic father. The patient's confused sexual identity is seen as a narcissistic defence against the experience of unbeatable frustration in the pre-Oedipal stage. Through internalizing a new primal scene, the patient is able to separate from his past and to work through the Oedipus complex within the transference.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Covington
mesh_terms: D000184:Acting Out; D003379:Countertransference; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005260:Female; D005619:Freudian Theory; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007602:Jungian Theory; D008297:Male; D009289:Narcissism; D009769:Object Attachment; D009813:Oedipus Complex; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D014167:Transference, Psychology