The Fraternal Archaic

Abstract

Abstract This article considers the relationships between brothers and sisters from the angle of a more primitive problematic which encompasses them. The archaic bond to the mother, with its moments of subject/object confusion and envious aggressiveness, pervades the ordinary rivalry proper to the fraternal bond – which is a corollary of the specular structure of the self, between narcissistic triumph and annihilation. An adult clinical case shows the traumatic depressant impact, in the transferential aftermath, of the birth of a younger brother – and how analysis was able to unravel this neurotic complex.