Oedipal Anxiety and Cultural Variations in the Incest Taboo: A Psychotherapy Case Study in the Nigerian Setting
| Autor: | Sunny T. C. Ilechukwu |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 1999 |
| Předmět: |
Health (social science)
Psychotherapist 05 social sciences Panic symptoms Extended family 050108 psychoanalysis medicine.disease Incest taboo 030227 psychiatry Somatic anxiety Officer 03 medical and health sciences Psychiatry and Mental health 0302 clinical medicine Oedipus complex medicine Anxiety 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences medicine.symptom Psychology Somatization |
| Zdroj: | Transcultural Psychiatry. 36:211-225 |
| ISSN: | 1461-7471 1363-4615 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/136346159903600204 |
| Popis: | This paper reports the highlights of long-term dynamic psychotherapy with an African. The case is presented of a 34-year-old Nigerian exarmy officer with the onset of panic symptoms following the death of a neighbor. This event was found to symbolize the core of his conflicts. Therapy revealed ongoing conflict with his father, with peers at work and in his marriage. There were also violations of the incest taboos in his extended and polygamous family. The psychotherapeutic process is delineated with special reference to Oedipal components. The following variations are discussed: (i) the impact of a cultural setting which enforced infancy/early childhood domicile with mother, separate sleeping quarters for the father, and later separation of all males from mother; (ii) the dynamics of growing up in a home where father has multiple wives who may function as surrogate mothers in his lifetime or, at his death, as potential wives; (iii) the vicissitudes of the incest taboo in a complex extended family that is under siege by urbanization. The therapeutic experience contrasts sharply with the experience of western psychiatrists who practiced in Nigeria two decades before. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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