The Object Relation

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This insatiable, dissatisfied mother, around whom the entire ascent of the child along the path of narcissism is constructed, is a real person; she is there, and like all insatiable beings, she seeks to devour. Just as the child had found something at another moment to crush his symbolic dissatisfaction, he may find it again before him as open jaws. […] Here lies the great danger revealed by her phantoms: being devoured. […] It provides the essential form under which phobia presents itself. We find the same in Juanito's fears. […] With the help of what I have just presented to you today, you will better see the relationships between phobia and perversion. […] I would even say that you will interpret the case better than Freud could. (From chapter XI) But castration, it has been seen ominously, has as much to do with the mother as with the father. Maternal castration - we see it in the description of the primitive situation - implies for the child the possibility of devouring and biting. There is a precedence of maternal castration, and paternal castration is a substitute for it. (From chapter XXI)