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Notes
1. Initially, oral eroticism takes centre stage, then dominance shifts to sadism and anality, and in a third phase, the contribution of the proper genital zones emerges (Freud, Citation1905a).
2. Regarding the polymorphously perverse disposition in children, Freud states, ‘It is definitively impossible not to recognize something universally human and original in the uniform predisposition towards all perversions’ (Freud, Citation1905a).
3. Freud emphasises how the human disposition towards perversions can undergo fluctuations in its intensity and can be accentuated by events in an individual’s life (Freud, Citation1905a).
4. John Hughlings Jackson (1835–1911) can be regarded as the father of English neurology. His theories, primarily derived from observations on aphasic and epileptic patients, encompass various aspects, including the lateralisation of hemisphere function and the concept that the integration of sensory data occurs during sleep.
5. Panksepp, an American neuroscientist and psychologist, distinguishes consciousness into anoetic, noetic, and autonoetic levels (Citation2011), encompassing a continuum from rudimentary consciousness to understanding meanings. In light of this theory, we could interpret the concept of Freudian regression, from a biological standpoint, as a malfunction in the hierarchical organisation of the brain (from the brainstem to higher centres), leading to the dominance of more primitive centres and a decline in higher-order structures. Similarly, from a psychological perspective, in situations of mental pathology, a return to functioning associated with early developmental stages could arise, analogous to the way Panksepp’s framework categorises varying levels of consciousness.
6. The target organ expressing the unconscious conflict could be, for example, the throat that results in nervous coughing in the case of Dora – though one might question whether it could have been a tic – or even the brain itself, which might lead to the manifestation of obsessive thoughts.
7. It could be interesting to discuss the concept of a ‘spectrum’ (such as a spectrum that encompasses situations ranging from obsessive disorders to autism) that presents different psychopathological symptoms based on the interaction between an individual’s underlying constitution and a specific environment.
8. As Freud himself writes, constitutional factors can include the intensity of drives and the capacity for repression and sublimation (Freud, Citation1905a).
9. Freud writes about the infantile polymorphous perverse disposition, ‘It is definitely impossible not to recognise something universally human and original in the uniform predisposition towards all perversions’.
10. The words I have enclosed in quotation marks are the ones that I read in the report that the parents will provide me during the consultation.
11. I think of the ‘pleasure in looking’ that Freud talks about. Indeed, if it’s true that in infancy the erogenous zones predominate, there are also components of the sexual drive for which, right from the start, it is required that other people can be established as sexual objects, like watching or exhibiting (Freud, Citation1905b, p. 500).
12. The child is six years old.
13. A reference to the ‘sado-sexual conception of the sexual relationship for children’ as described by Freud (Citation1905b, p. 504) seems useful.
14. The child is seven and a half years old.
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Silvia Cimino
Silvia Cimino Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology, Department of Dynamic, Clinical, and Health Psychology, ‘Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza’ University of Rome; National Scientific Qualification for Full Professorship (disciplinary sector 11/E4, Clinical and Dynamic Psychology), Child, Adolescent, and Family Psychotherapist (AIPPI); Ordinary Member of the Italian Association of Psychoanalysis (AIPsi-IPA, International Psychoanalytic Association); member of the Royal Society of Medicine; Principal Investigator of numerous peer-reviewed research projects; Editor and Reviewer for several international scientific journals. Author of over 150 national and international publications (including articles, books, book chapters) primarily focused on child and adolescent psychopathology (with a particular emphasis on eating disorders, depression, and the impact of traumatic experiences).