A Sadomasochistic Transference - Beth J. Seelig, MD

in addition to their role in narcissistic regulation, erotization of suffering,
stabilization of self-esteem. Surrender and masochism, domination and sadism,
then, are "perverse" characterological adaptations that preserve some remnant of
mutuality. (We use the term "perverse" here as analogous to the perverse sexual
solution in which sexual pleasure is preserved, though at a high cost.)
Sadomasochistic pathology allows the individual to maintain intimate though
distorted human contact.
Failure of Triangulation
Distortions in the rapprochement subphase often have negative implications
for the future development of triangulation. As is stressed by Atkins (1982) and by
Galenson and Roiphe (1976), the mother can either facilitate or impede the
establishment of
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the early triangular configuration. Galenson and Roiphe (1976) have observed that
if a little girl's rapprochement subphase has been particularly difficult, she will
form only a shadowy oedipal romance with father, one that lacks the usual verve.
For these girls, the highly ambivalent maternal bond appears to preclude the
normal early turn to the father or any third person.
In his articles on preoedipal triangulation, Abelin (1971), (1975) elaborates
the important role of the father in the separation-individuation process and
describes the individuating child as seeing itself in a "dual mirror" of father and
mother. Mahler and Gosliner (1955) have described the father's role in the
separation-individuation process as intervening between mother and child to aid in
the child's differentiation from the symbiotic mother. Father provides a safe object
for the individuating child, a refuge when the "mother of separation," imbued with
the child's projected aggression, is too threatening. Herzog (1982) describes
difficulties in modulation of aggression in children who have been deprived of
their fathers by divorce. The special role that the father can serve in enhancing the
daughter's self-esteem is described by Ross (1988), and his role in either fostering
or inhibiting her later creativity has been reported by Tessman (1989,
unpublished).
How does the individuating child learn to "see" itself in the "dual mirrors"
described by Abelin? How does the child integrate its reflection in the maternal
and paternal mirrors, and what happens if one mirroring parent is missed and or
distorts? Worse yet, what if one parent is virtually missing and the other
consistently misreads the child's cues and provides a distorted reflection, as was
the case in Miss T.'s childhood?
In early childhood, the mother helps mold the infant's perceptions of self and
other. One could say, she presents the child with her "point of view." The child