For Freud, the “child-is-being-beaten” fantasy appears in a
three-stage sequence in girls: (1) the fantasizer sees her father beating
another child, her rival;
(2) she is beaten by her
father; (3) a father substitute such as a teacher is beating children, usually
boys, and the fantasizer is present, as in the first stage, in the role of a
spectator rather than as a participant. Although the first and third stages of
the fantasy are consciously remembered, the second stage is not. It is the third
stage that generally accompanies sexual arousal. Ultimately, Freud suggests that the
beating fantasy condenses a girl’s debased genital love for her father with
punishment for her incestuous wishes. In contrast, for the boy, Freud posits only two
stages. Although the conscious fantasy is one of being beaten by the mother (or
other women), the unconscious fantasy, like that of the girls, is “I am being beaten by my father.” Thus,
Freud believed the boy’s
beating fantasy, like the girl’s, was stoked by sexual love for the father. No
stage similar to the girl’s first stage was described for the boy.
In
more general terms, Freud
uses the “child-is-being-beaten” fantasy to explore
the genesis and structure of fantasy, its developmental sequencing, and the
interplay between unconscious and conscious fantasy, and he extends his
discussion to encompass masochism and perversion. On Freud's "A Child is Being Beaten" Introduction by
Ethel Spector Person
Dear Don,
My copy of Freud´s 1919 article in English is
in my office and I tried "Googling" to get it and could not reach his text
directly but just the introduction of an essay by Dr. E.Spector Person ( how
about that for an apposite name if one thinks about Hugh Person´s
plights?) .
Best,
Jansy