On Pregenital Compulsive Phenomena and the Repetition Compulsion
Abstract
. ON PREGENITAL COMPULSIVE PHENOMENA AND THE REPETITION COMPULSION PHILIP TVEISSMAN, M.D. I t would be more logical to begin this genetic and developmental investigation of the character of pregenital obsessionality from direct noncontroversial areas, such as the recently increasing evidence that compulsion neurosis as well as compulsive behavior appear frequently in the very early preoedipal period. However, there are the advantages of reorientation from established areas of our psychoanalytic body of knowledge that make it worth while to examine older formulations as a starting point for this level of investigation. I n Freud's monograph, Beyond the Pleaszire Principle (Z), he describes the behavior and the dramatic play of a one-and-a-halfyear-old boy to demonstrate the phenomenon referred to as the repetition compulsion. This he describes as a "beyond the pleasure principle" act. In his opinion at that time, problems of transference, resistance, acting out and traumatic neuroses are similar evidences of the repetition compulsion. It is beyond the scope of this paper to evaluate or to reorient, if necessary, the relationships of these phenomena to each other. Suffice it to say, that again Freud attempted to understand matters of ego psychology in terms of instinctual psychology. T h