Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis III 1922 1.djvu/143

 REPORTS 135

the object-libido, as well as it may imply a redirection of the aim towards non-sexual, culturally valuable ends. Basing his remarks on observations made on the poetry and the club-life of adolescents, and on children's games, the lecturer attempted to formulate more precisely the concept of sublimation, laying stress at the same time on these two main points: (i) We must try to replace the evalution which we tacidy include in the idea of sublimation by a descrip- tive concept; as this, the lecturer proposes to take the consistency with the ego contained in the diversion from the aim, that is, he virould call 'sublimation* only those diversions from the aim, of the above-mentioned mechanism, which serve the ego aims (ego- instincts or ego-libido). (2) The capacity for sublimation is apparently directly related to the quantity of libidinal cathexis of the ego- instincts.

Discussion by Fedem, Kohiai, Deutsch, Reik, Nunberg and

Freud.

3. November p, ipsi. Short communications:

a. Dr. Helene Deutsch: 'An observation.' Two brothers quite unlike one another, of which the elder dies. Later the younger brother comes to ressemble both physically and mentally the dead brother in a quite remarkable manner: he wished to take the elder brother's place in his mother's estimation; this was the clear motive of his metamorphosis.

b. Dr. Bemfeld: 'On the symbolism of neckties.' A five-year old little girl models a boy with a necktie in plasticine. The tie is placed low and has the shape of a penis. Just be- fore, she had seen a little boy undressed, apparently for the first

time.

c. Dr. Nunberg reports on two cases of particularly strong erotic relations between fathers and daughters. One father in his forty- second year had sexual leanings towards his fourteen-year old daughter. Another father had severe incestuous phantasies regarding his daughter. The first case went to the length of at committing incest; his relations with the daughter bore narcissistic traits. The patient indenti- fied himself with his father (on a homosexual basis) and with his

daughter.

In the second case there were phantasies of a marriage with the daughter, then only three years old: the patient sought in the little girl his own infantile ego-ideal. The defloration-phantasy is linked not only with sadism, but also with anal-eroticism.

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