The Wolfman part I - [excerpt]

translated by Asunción Alvarez

The Dream and the Seduction Scene Freud also links to this episode what is for him the fundamental position of the subject, which is maintained throughout the case, namely the passive position. This passive position is truly the fundamental basis of the case. Following this basis of passivity, you will see later the naughty and sadistic phase. But Freud points out that this phase denotes a desire to be beaten on the child’s part, and that the key to this sadism is thus a fundamental masochism. Later on, it will appear the exact same schema concerning the dream. There, escaping from what the dream means, the subject denies castration anxiety by adopting a masculine stance which Freud himself invites us to place between inverted commas. He considers it a semblance of masculinity, as this masculine stance is correlative to an unconscious homosexuality.

This dream is not a real fact in the way the seduction is, but we have, between the seduction and the dream, a repetition of Freud’s same arguments. First we have a passivity which is apparent and fundamental: he behaved like a girl, was docile, etc. And then, in the seduction and under the threat, the Wolfman adopts a sadistic attitude which is actually masochistic. There is a gap between his apparent behavior and his non-apparent yet fundamental position. That’s where his seduction comes in. Afterwards, with the dream, the same elements taken on a new value - masculinity and homosexuality: