A PSYCHOANALYTICAL READING OF EURIPIDES' ION: REPETITION, DEVELOPMENT AND

IDENTITY
Author(s): NAOMI WEISS
Source: Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies , 2008, Vol. 51 (2008), pp. 39-50
Published by: Oxford University Press

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 A PSYCHOANALYTICAL READING OF EURIPIDES'
ION : REPETITION, DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY

NAOMI WEISS

The usefulness and legitimacy of a Freudian approach to Greek tragedy have of

questioned on account of its tendency to stretch interpretation to the point whe
little support from the text itself. Nevertheless, instead of focussing on th
Complex' as a model for analysis, careful employment of other Freudian the
yield more convincing interpretations.1 Exploration of the human condition is
both of Freudian psychoanalysis and of myth, particularly as employed in fifth
tragedy.2 As Euripides is especially striking for the psychological portray
characters, a search for similarities between these and the supposedly universal
behaviour analysed by Freud can contribute to our appreciation of the dr
understanding of the human condition, and even elucidate certain Freudian con
turn. Interpretation of the Ion may benefit from such an approach in ter
characters' maturation and 'therapy', which have not yet been discussed with th
that a psychoanalytic study could facilitate. In exploring this play I will particula
upon Freud's notion of repetition compulsion, as well as other concepts outlined
1920 paper Beyond the pleasure principle , but also include more recent psychoa
theory concerning children's development.
The Ion is full of repetition and duplication, not just within the play itself, in
the two recognition scenes, two consultations of the Delphic oracles, and the tw
attempts, but also against the broader background of myth and the characters'
The original abandonment of Ion by his mother, his departure away from Athe
hands of Hermes, and his final restoration there following the reunion at the p

Greek quotations are taken from Euripides, Ion, ed. J. Diggle (Oxford 1981).

1 See J. Lear, Love and its place in nature: a philosophical interpretation of Freudian psychoanalys
1990) 39-54, for the argument that 'we should kill off Freud's Oedipus' (39). M. Nussbaum, in 'Th
Rex and the ancient unconscious', in Freud and forbidden knowledge , ed. P. L. Rudnytsky and E. H
York 1994) 42-71, at 43-44 and 64, stresses the gap between the Freudian preoccupation with sexua
concerns of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. The ancient unconscious could, however, concern repressed se
J. Glenn, in The fantasies of Phaedra: a psychoanalytic reading', Classical World 69 (1976) 4
example, convincingly interprets Phaedra's fantasies in Euripides' Hippolytus (208-31) as ve
fulfilments of her frustrated desire to consummate physically her love for her stepson.

2 On the purpose of myth and its employment in tragedy, see: M. J. Anderson, 'Myth', in A compani
tragedy, ed. J. Gregory (Oxford 2005) 121-35; B. Knox, Word and action: essays on the anc
(Baltimore 1979), particularly 8-16. N. Loraux, in 'Kreousa the autochthon: a study of Eurip
Nothing to do with Dionysus? Athenian drama in its social context, ed. J. J. Winkler and F. I. Zeitlin
1990) 168-206, at 206, stresses the way in which myth portrays the universality of human behaviour.

BICS-51 2008
39

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 40 BICS-51 -2008

recall his ancestors' separation f

Athenian soil from which he
Athena; Erechtheus was subsume
The reception of Ion as a son by
'rebirth' as he enters manhood
abandonment of him as a baby;
her rape by Apollo.4 Thus the p
present by being revived thro
earlier events and myth, recollec
as in her monody and description
onstage her mind is occupie
'embedded in the present',7 conc
temple:

... 7UÓVODÇ oi)Ç 6K 7l(Xl5ÒÇ

jioxGoûjxev (xsí (1 02-03)

However, his interest in the past is awakened almost as soon as he encounters Kreousa:
his curiosity in her ancestry is met by hers in his, so that in answering her questions he
talks of his childhood and the unknown circumstances of his birth (258-329).
Freud's discussion of the 'compulsion to repeat' may correspond interestingly to the
events and characters' concerns in the Ion. In Beyond the pleasure principle he describes
how a patient who suffered a distressing incident in the past 'is obliged to repeat the
repressed material as a contemporary experience instead of... remembering it as something
belonging to the past'.8 In a very general sense this phenomenon is similar to the
interference of past traumatic events in the present of Euripides' play, but is also more
specifically paralleled in the behaviour of both Ion and Kreousa. Freud introduces the
concept of repetition compulsion by describing how a young patient, who was very
attached to his mother, used to throw objects away whilst making a sound that seemed to
represent the German word Joď ('gone'). He interprets this action as a manifestation of
the child's suppressed impulse to revenge himself on his mother for leaving him every so
often. Through repeating the unpleasant experience the boy gained a sense of control over
it, thereby transforming the passive situation in which he was abandoned into one in

3 See K. Zacharia, Converging truths: Euripides ' Ion and the Athenian quest for self-definition (Leiden 2003)
67-68, on the basic mythemes operating in the play.

4 10-27, 336-58, 879-922, 936-65, 1474-99.

5 839-922; 260-82, 987-1003.

6 Through her ancestry Kreousa is also most closely related to the play's various mythical figures: see C. Wolff,
'The design and myth in Euripides' Ion' Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 69 (1965) 169-94, at 182. This
connection may heighten the sense of her detachment from the largely human present.

7 K. Lee, 'Shifts of mood and concepts of time in Euripides' lon' in M. S. Silk (ed.), Tragedy and the tragic
(Oxford 1996) 85-109, at 87.

8 S. Freud, 'Beyond the pleasure principle', in S.E. 18 (London 1920) 18; Cf S. Freud, 'Remembering,
Repeating and Working-through', in S.E. 12 (London 1914) 150.

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 NAOMI WEISS: EURIPIDES' ION 41

which he was the active agent, rejecting his

Kreousa could be interpreted similarly, for Eu
his own rejection (symbolically re-enacted by K
in turn and thereby assuming an active role in
our impression that, on some level at least, he i
even though he does not fully realise their rela
Freud's analysand resists attempts to transform
memory of the original trauma,12 so Ion is als
when Kreousa mentions his long lost mother
oiKTÓv è'Çay' ov '^s^rjajasOa (361). From this
dwells on his past as a result of his encounters
when he interrogates the king so as to learn ab
It is the character of Kreousa, however, whic
with respect to Freud's theory of repetition co
related types of behaviour. Her preoccupati
encounter with Apollo and subsequent abandon
those symptoms described by Freud in cases of
'"fixated" to a particular portion of their past,
themselves from it and were for that reason al
Kreousa seems so cut off from the present tha
first enters, as a result of her distracted grief
251), but fails to perceive any of the signs ind
only does so when the priestess produces the m
its contents. Even when Ion approaches the tru
have taken her 'friend's' child away and re
connection between this possibility and the
young temple attendant standing before her: in
ever since her son's birth.14 Even when she and

9 OFreud, 'Beyond the pleasure principle' (n. 8, above) 14

defence (New York 1936) 111-14.
10 M. Rustin and M. Rustin, Mirror to nature: drama, psyc
'the form of his revenge is to inflict on her what his
abandonment'. The anger demonstrated by Ion's murder a
'recovery' from a sense of maternal bereavement, which
encounter with Kreousa. See J. Holmes, John Bowlby a
significance of such expression of anger, as emphasise
separation, anxiety and anger (London 1973).
11 Such unrealised awareness is indicated by his sympathy f
by his reaction to the experience of her 'friend', who is o
sufferings, saying 7tpoacôtôòç fļ voyy' tg)|4.cöi 7tá0ei (359).

12 S. Freud, 'Introductory lectures on psychoanalysis: par

the pleasure principle' (n. 8, above) 20-21. For Freud, the un
conscious thought, of instinctual desires, needs and psych
conscious, preconscious and unconscious, see S. Freud, An
13 Freud, 'Introductory Lectures' (n. 12, above) 313.

14 Cf Lee, 'Shifts of Mood' (n. 7, above) 91.

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42 BICS-5 1-2008

are dominated by the attempt

childlessness and his gift of
exchange with Ion at Apollo
claiming that she had acted th
7ioXé|iiov ôójioiç éjLioîç, 129
erroneous that it seems her p
blinded her to actual reality.
Kreousa's fourfold repetition
'friend') demonstrates the pas
of her arrival at the god's tem
she presents in her monody in
although it may suggest som
particularly striking: Apollo i
upon her (883-90); he clasps he
is conveyed by the impression
petals in her lap, before she re

rj)t0sç ļioi xpuocûi xaÍTav

jLiapjiaípcov, em' éç kóXjcod
KpÓKea nézáka cpdpsaiv eSpe
àvGíÇetv xp^aavTOuyfi (887

Thus Kreousa seems to rel

recollections of it are like com
to the past through structu
suddenness and fright that Fr
excitation to break through
repetition compulsion:15 Apol
the consequences of the rape
98; cf. 898). The separation o
prised the combination of the
for her repetition compulsion
(249).
Freud emphasises that such b
has been relegated to the un
conscious memory. The mater
to the extent that she has had t

aiycoaa yájiouç,
GtycDaa tókodç noXvKkamo

15 Freud, 'Beyond the pleasure princ

from the external world' (p. 28). Cf.
the pleasure principle ', Internationa

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 NAOMI WEISS: EURIPIDES' ION 43

In fact, Euripides' portrayal does not so much

unconscious mechanism of repression , but r
suppression : not only social suppression, but self-

7TC0Ç 5è gkotííxç avacpiļvco

súváç, aíSovç 8' anoXeicpGco; (860-61)

Her own sense of shame, itself perhaps an intern

hindered her from speaking out. 16
Nevertheless, when Kreousa does describe the
reveal the operation of some repression on her fe
light suggests more susceptibility to his seduct
admit.17 It is important for Kreousa that her prese
she was raped, as then she remains blameless
questioned; if she was seduced, then her sexual m
hymnic form in which she casts her criticism of
ironic, with the beginning invocation to his musi
statement aol |xoji(pav...au5daö) in lines 885-8
ambiguous position concerning his attraction, part
u^vodç sûaxnTOVÇ (884) are made all the more stri
very compelling. Thus language can reveal the sin
balanced to express indirectly what could not be
in the Hippolytus , Kreousa' s is expressed throug
Phaedra's fantasies of escape, Kreousa' s monod
fulfilment.20 Though this is from the past, it se
later voluntarily reunites herself with Apollo by r
iepòv to acomia toh 08COI ôíôcojLi' e^eiv (1285).21 F

16 S. E. Hoffer, in 'Violence, culture and the workings of i

(1996) 289-318, at 304, claims Kreousa and Ion have a 'shared
evident in Kreousa than in her son. M. Huys, in The tale of
tragedy: a study of motifs (Leuven 1995) 95, suggests that, by o
conflict between the girl and her father regarding the child's
conflict in Kreousa's soul'.

17 Cf. A. P. Burnett, 'Human resistance and divine persuasion in Euripides' Ion' Classical Philology 57 (1962)
89-103, at 96; S. A. Barlow, 'The language of Euripides' monodies', in Studies in Honour ofT. B. L. Webster ,
ed. J. H. Betts, J. T. Hooker and J. R. Green (Bristol 1986) 10-22, at 16; K. H. Lee, trans. Euripides: Ion
(Warminster 1997) 258.

18 Cf N. S. Rabinowitz, Anxiety veiled: Euripides and the traffic in women (Ithaca 1993) 197.

19 Barlow, 'The language of Euripides' monodies' (n. 17, above) 17. Cf. C. Segal, 'Sophocles' Oedipus
Tyrannus: Freud, language and the unconscious', in Freud and forbidden knowledge , ed. P. L Rudnytsky and
E. H. Spitz (New York 1994) 72-95, at 75.
20 See above, n. 1; Cf Rabinowitz, Anxiety veiled (n. 18, above) 191. S . Freud, in 'The interpretation of dreams',
in S.E. 1 (London) 122-33, suggests that dreams represent wish-fulfilments of repressed (often sexual) desires.

21 A. P. Burnett, in Catastrophe survived: Euripides' plays of mixed reversal (Oxford 1971) 121, claims that
Kreousa symbolically re-enacts her first union with Apollo by throwing herself upon his mercy, even if her
bitterness towards him remains.

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44 BICS-5 1 -2008

the god after her recognition sc

aivco Ooißov o-òk alvoûaa rcpív
It is through speech, at least
consciousness - and perhaps als
firstly in Hermes' brief account
using the pretence of her 'frien
tutor requires a clearer elaborat
experience openly to Ion at 1478
which she converts into action b
marks her emergence from repr
she transforms her position from
to speech, from victim to aggre
to self-propelled female subject'
she can only be powerful in spe
itself. Before she arrives she had
leave at the end of the play, alt
their biological relationship (Athe
1601). Moreover, she may assum
from a feeling of utter helpl
Apollo's favour to Xuthus. It is
tries to gain more control over
takes action when repression fr
suppression has crumbled, bringi
Kreousa' s repetition of her pas
which she finally comes to term
reunited. Her murder attempt,
Ion as a baby, may be the penult
as Ion's attempt may have been.
recognition scene, she fully ack
mitigates her guilt by stressing h

... SV (poßCDl, X8KV0V,

KaxaÔ£08ÎGa g<xv ¿Tceßa^ov '|/
excesiva g' cfco t)g'... (1497-99

Kreousa' s repetitions might be

gives to manifestations of rep
structured registration of the o
'such registrations are transform
structuralisation'.24 Cohen's th

22 Zacharia, Converging truths (n. 3, abo

23 T. Lipin, 'The repetition compulsio

Pyschoanalysis 44 (1963) 389-406, at 3
24 J. Cohen, 'Structural consequence
above) 34-35, on how repetition compulsi

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 NAOMI WEISS: EURIPIDES' ION 45

edited through this repetitive process is also exem

to her own action.25 Once Kreousa has overcome
the present, when she perceives the signs indicat
the future, when she is ready to return to Athens
(1616). She and Ion can finally turn away from th
optimism: hence his wish that

... xànikouia xrjç Tv%r'q

suôai^iovoîjiev, Q)ÇTà7ipóa0' sôdgtúxbi (145

After reliving the past and being reunited with h

ation from maiden to mother, which her abandonm
with Xuthus have previously prevented. Thus the
course of the play is analogous to the psychoanaly
promote the resumption of a previously arrested '
recalling so vividly in her monody her experienc
Apollo as she gathered flowers, just as Persephone
she has not yet freed herself from that status: ra
earlier stage of her development. She seems to ex
by Freud in cases of transference neurosis: a retur
(assuming she was susceptible to Apollo's allure); a
to a lower stage of development (the regression f
virgin one).28 Loraux suggests that her links with
in producing her autochthonous ancestry, could als
At the same time, her strongest affinity with the
position as a young mother, so that even this rela
position: the cloth she placed inside her baby's
TpÓ7iov, whilst the golden necklace is ôœprm' ÂG
the mother Demeter, in search of and mournin
believes her son is dead and she herself childless. With Ion 'reborn' and her whole
experience worked through again, Kreousa can finally proceed to the status of matron, a
her age befits her, and thereby complete this crucial stage of development and transition.
It is the maturation of Ion, however, that is most evident in the play: his naive, boyish
outlook in the opening scene develops into a critical, worldly intelligence, whereby he

25 Cohen, 'Structural Consequences' (n. 15, above) 425.

26 Cohen, 'Structural Consequences' (n. 15, above) 424; Cf. Lipin, The repetition compulsion' (n. 23, above
399-405.

27 Horn. Hymn Dem. 2-21, 414-32.

28 Freud, 'Introductory lectures' (n. 12, above) 383-86. Freud first elaborated the concept of 'transference
neurosis' in 'Remembering, repeating and working through' (n. 8, above) 147-56, as a phenomenon of the
analytic process whereby the analysand's perception of the analyst becomes entwined with his unconscious
memory complexes from childhood. He later observed that what is repeated in cases of transference neurosis is
'some portion of infantile life': 'Beyond the pleasure principle' (n. 8, above) 18.

29 Loraux, 'Kreousa the Autochthon' (n. 2, above) 199-201; N. Loraux, The children of Athena: Athenian ideas
about citizenship and the division between the sexes (Princeton 1993) 224.

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46 BICS-5 1-2008

fully comprehends the danger

case, repetition enables him
thereafter progress from child
development which were ori
celebratory sacrifices (Xuthus
but,more importantly, the b
repeatof his original abandonm
maiden- to motherhood becaus

yaXaKTi 8' ouk ènéo%ov ouSè

xpo<peîa jiaipòç ou8è Xouxpà

Similarly, the emphasis which

has caused him a developmenta

..•Xpóvov yàp ov 'ť sxpfjv èv

p,r|Tpòç Tpixpfjoai Kai ti xsp(p
ajieaTspiļGīļv <piA,T(ÍTT1ç MT|

It is only once they have bee

childhood, in order to embark
Ion's maturation through th
analysis concerning the success
development.32 When the 'plea
of constancy', whereby one s
constant level.33 Ion's situati
pleasure stage, as he expresse
£Ò(pá|iODÇ 8è 7ióvoDÇ / p,ox0eî

30 On Ion's development, see J. O. de

Museum Africum 4 (1975) 28-42; on h
above) 225.

31 Parental rejection or abandonme

repetition compulsion' (n. 23, above)
1969), Attachment and loss: volume I
volume III, sadness and depression (Lo
the emergence of a healthy ego. J.
delusion of omnipotence from a dev
Association 39 (1991) 307-31, at 31
disturbance in the 'infant-mother tran
mothers' (p. 315). The absence of a m
preoccupied with his mother's identit
antiquity', in Sigmund Freud and art
York 1989) 153-71, compares the mas
absent mother in Prometheus Vinctus

32 The pleasure principle, which domin

its impulses, often confusing fantasy w
of and accommodation to the real, out
8-9.

33 Freud, 'Beyond the pleasure princip

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 NAOMI WEISS: EURIPIDES' ION Al

of this regular activity is made very clear by his

approach (154-83), which seems to prefigure the
into his idyllic life.34 The birds constitute the fi
stancy, causing him suddenly to become agitated.
ruptured, for after their appearance the chorus of
by the princess herself, who disturbs Ion by being
sight of Apollo's temple: he exclaims sa* / áXk' é
upsets his contentment by causing him to questio
ingly served (voD0exr|T8oç 8s jxot / Ooîpoç, tí 7íáo
encountered visitors to the temple and presum
Athens' foundation (at 265 he asks if they are
entrance he for the first time comes into contact
directly relevant, albeit unknown, to him. T
demonstrating the onset of the 'reality principle
exposed to and incorporated within the reality of
vision. Freud emphasises the repression of certain
as well as the experience of repeated failures at it
Ion does not seem to include such repression, but
not exactly failing) now that his carefree exist
trictive difficulties awaiting him in Athens due t
birth. Within the action of the play itself, he
objectives, most significantly that of killing K
disturbance of his previous existence caused by
initially tries to repel the king's advances by thr
repel the birds, but ends up reluctantly embracing
Ion's departure from his previous existence i
steadily through the course of the play, and so
between the domination of the pleasure principle
particular discusses in response to Freud's ideas. A
the womb he experienced a period of uncondition
an "outer world" exists only in a very restrict
warmth, and nourishment are assured by the mo
bolically as his rebirth, then his life in the temple
for, is like that period of omnipotence he orig
represented by the Delphic ójiíp ákòq (223). Of cour
protection and nourishment, but rather his father
(137; cf. 183). The sharing of the 'pregnancy' s
Apollo (symbolically) emphasises that Ion has two
then his father, whose identity she can reveal. A
longing to regain this original situation, und

34 See Lee, Euripides: Ion (n. 17, above) 174.

35 Freud, 'Beyond the pleasure principle' (n. 8, above) 10-11.

36 S. Ferenczi, 'Stages in the development of the sense of r

(London 1913) 218.

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48 BICS-5 1-2008

omnipotence before eventuall

contentedexistence after his c
such disquiet by 'find[ing] com

... àXkà xpDoéaiç

7ipóxoiaiv s^Gœv síç d7ropp
õpóaov KaOiļaco ... (434-36)

This desire for the resumption

acts as the temple attendant,
questioning Apollo's actions (43
at Delphi and bids Xuthus sa 8é
has already accepted the kin
erection of the tent at 1 132-66
interpreted as an attempt to r
interior in a manner reminis
much.39 At the same time, how
perspective has been enlarge
constellations, naval voyages an
identity by including a represe
Ion's increasingly inquisitive a
of his 'reality sense' away from
the temple. Klein emphasises t
ment as a stage through which
then he can scrutinise earlier
This period begins as soon as K
chorus with information to ask
of his exchange with Xuthus, I
quizzes the king concerning th
greater than that of veridicalit
(that he was conceived durin

37 Ferenczi, 'Stages in the developm

masochism' (n. 31, above) 309-10.
38 Lee, 'Shifts of mood' (n. 7, above) 9
loss (n. 31, above), has termed an 'i
attachment to his mother, may vie
demonstrates how insecure attachme
attachment figure: he desires both to b
Bowlby (n. 10, above) 67-68, 79.

39 Cf. 184-218. See F. I. Zeitlin, 'Myst

144-97, at 166-69, on Ion's constructio
construction of his identity.

40 M. Klein, 'Development of a child',

3-16. A. Freud also discusses this perio
to test reality, modifies and lessens h
83-92; R. Edgcumbe, Anna Freud : A
2000) 14.

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 NAOMI WEISS: EURIPIDES' ION 49

Kreousa' s claim that he is Apollo's son also seems

reality, a knowledge that young girls are won
illegitimate children, but is nevertheless wrong.41
Freud claims that domination of the pleasur
complete psychical detachment from his parents,
importance of autonomy and individuation from
is no longer reliant on his parents for protection
receded and been replaced by an acceptance of th
it is the discovery of his parents that enables Ion
escence into adulthood; in finding his heritage he
exposure to reality comes his acquisition of ident
into adulthood. Maturation involves the develo
identity', an attainment of 'not merely self-conc
world, including roles, commitments, relationshi
world in which to function'.43 Ion's parentag
concept:44 being ignorant of their identity at th
account of who he is beyond saying tov Gsoi) Ko&
standing of his position in the world also depend
with his false father, Xuthus, Ion accepts his nam
and relationship with his Stepmother'.45 Following
finally leaves for Athens where his position is as
ïÇod naXaiovç (1618).46
Ion's relationship with Kreousa is crucial in t
from the initial prompt to wonder about his own
realises his glorious lineage. Kreousa also in a sens
reunion, as she completes the transition from mai
also secured as a result of having an heir.47 M
recovering their identities and simultaneously com

41 1520-48.

42 S. Freud, Tive lectures on psycho-analysis', in S.E. 11 (London 1910) 48; Freud, 'Introductory lectures' (n.
12, above) 380; A. Freud, 'Adolescence', in Psychoanalytic study of the child 13 (1958) 262-75. Cf. P. Bios, On
adolescence : a psychoanalytic interpretation (New York 1962) 75-128.

43 R. S. Lazarus, Emotion and adaptation (Oxford 1991) 346.

44 See W. E. Forehand, Truth and reality in Euripides' Ion' Ramus 8 (1979) 174-87, at 175-78.

45 According to Bowlby's Attachment Theory, consistent maternal contact is particularly important for such
awareness of oneself and one's relationship with others to develop: as Holmes, John Bowlby (n. 10 above) 117,
explains, 'from maternal consistency comes a sense of history.... From maternal holding comes the ability to hold
one's self in one's own mind: the capacity for self-reflection, to conceive of oneself and others as having minds'.
Upon contact with Kreousa, Ion not only gains increasing understanding of and interest in his own standing
within the world, but also appreciates more and more the attitudes of others (his 'stepmother' Kreousa, the
Athenian citizens) towards himself.

46 On the link between recognition and self-recognition in tragedy, see S. Bennett, 'Recognition in Greek
tragedy: psychoanalysis on Aristotelian perspectives', in Freud and Forbidden Knowledge , ed. P. L Rudnytsky
and E. H. Spitz (New York 1994) 110-18.
47 Kreousa and her house therefore also seem to have been 'reborn' in some way: see Loraux, 'Kreousa the
Autochthon' (n. 2, above) 186f.

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 50 BICS-51 -2008

moment they first meet, their

lost mother and she him with her lost son: both seem to demonstratè a kind of
transference, whereby they each project their emotions concerning their respective l
onto the other.48 Of course the irony is that Kreousa really is Ion's mother and Ion her
so that their emotions are placed on the correct object and not really transferred at a
Nevertheless, their initial meeting and, for Kreousa, the place of Delphi itself, spark
process of therapeutic change and a corresponding recreation of identity which
fulfilment in the play's closing scene. In sympathising with one another, they
unknowingly begin to repair their mother-child relationship: Klein emphasises how s
mutual identification contributes to the process of 'making reparation'.50 The conflue
of their renewed bond and mutual attainment of secure identity may be further relate
Freudian concepts, at least if Lear's (1990) interpretation holds true: 'for Freud, lo
manifested in human life in the process of individuation'.51 It is through the foundatio
a true, loving bond between mother and son that each can possess a sense of identity.
acquisition is the successful culmination of the process of maturation and ther
undergone through the Ion , a process which is also reflected in Freudian and po
Freudian psychoanalysis.

University of California, Berkeley

48 Cf. S. Freud, The dynamics of transference', in S.E. 12 (London 1912/1958) 97-108.

49 But the 'correct', external object is not necessarily identical to the internal one (i.e. the mother/son w
subject to imagination and conjecture).

50 M. Klein, 'Love, guilt and reparation', in Love , guilt and reparation and other works 1921-1945 (Lon
1937/1998)311-18.

51 J. Lear, Love and its place in nature (n. 1, above) 177.

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