5

Is there a purely paternal or maternal transference ? Drawing on the central scene of the fourth essay of Totem and Taboo, the author retraces with Freud the fantasy of overpowering, then beating, with reference to ‘On the universal tendency to debasement in the sphere of love’ and then to ‘A child is being beaten’, from debasement to triumph (of the father, of the child). This fantasy appears to be at work in the genesis of Freud’s creative process in his transference relationship with Fliess.