Article
A Contribution to the Psychogenesis of Tics
Zur Genese des Tics
Melanie Klein's 1925 paper, published in the Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, is based on her analysis of a boy who suffered from a tic. She argues that the tic is not merely a narcissistic discharge but is bound up with object relations: with the boy's phantasies about his parents' sexual intercourse, with masturbation, and with the anxiety and guilt attached to them. Once this material had been analysed, the tic disappeared. The paper appeared in English as "A Contribution to the Psychogenesis of Tics".
Main ideas
- The tic is not only a narcissistic discharge: it is rooted in the patient's object relations.
- The tic is linked to phantasies about the parents' sexual intercourse and to masturbation.
- The anxiety and guilt attached to these phantasies are bound up with the symptom.
- When these phantasies, anxieties and guilt were analysed, the tic went away.