By Carlo Bonomi (Italy)
This is the first book in a series which focuses on the circumcision trauma endured by Emma Eckstein. Emma was the most important female patient of Freud at the time when he was laboring to found psychoanalysis. She was born in 1865, when genital mutilation was becoming a standard practice, a frequently employed pediatric surgical intervention to treat masturbation in children, both boys and girls. In girls, this could and did include as “circumcision” clitoridectomy and partial to complete resection or cauterization of the labia. Emma’s childhood trauma precipitated a psychic reaction in Freud, which determined crucial aspects of his self-analysis and theorizing. In particular, Emma’s hallucination of having a penis became the cornerstone of the building of psychoanalysis. Published by Routledge Relational Perspectives Book Series, 2015.
Carlo Bonomi, PhD, is a training analyst and supervisor at the Institute of Psychoanalysis H.S. Sullivan, in Florence, Italy. He is president of the International Sándor Ferenczi Network, and Associate editor of the International Forum of Psychoanalysis.
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