Meaning of primal scene | Babel Free

Definitions

In Freudian theory, the first time a child witnesses (and understands) his or her parents copulating.

Equivalents

Examples

“1983, William J. Kerrigan, The Sacred Complex: On the Psychogenesis of Paradise Lost, Harvard University Press⟳, →ISBN, page 164, The primal scene is the site at which the issues of ego differentiation become⟳ translated into the issues of the oedipus complex.”

“1989, Andrew Samuels, The Plural Psyche:: Personality, Morality, and the Father, Routledge, →ISBN, page 123, The father's presence and image, together with those of the mother, form⟳ the raw material of the primal scene.”

“1995, Joel Whitebook, Perversion and Utopia: a study⟳ in psychoanalysis and critical theory, MIT Press⟳, →ISBN, page 51, She argues that perverse sexual activity constitutes an attempt⟳ to restage the primal scene in such a way as to eliminate its traumatic aspects.”

“Jeffrey Beaumont’s interslat voyeurism may be a sick parody of the Primal Scene, but neither he (a “college boy”) nor anybody else in the movie ever shows any inclination to say⟳ anything like⟳ “Gee, this is sort⟳ of like⟳ a sick parody of the good old Primal Scene” or even betrays any awareness that a lot of what’s going on is—both symbolically and psychoanalytically—heavy as hell.”

CEFR level