primal scene

Etymology

Translating German Urszene. Coined by Sigmund Freud in 1914.

Noun

primal scene (plural primal scenes)

1. (psychoanalysis) In Freudian theory, the first time a child witnesses (and understands) its parents copulating.
   • 1983, William J. Kerrigan, The Sacred Complex: On the Psychogenesis of Paradise Lost, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 164,

     The primal scene is the site at which the issues of ego differentiation become translated into the issues of the oedipus complex.

   • 1989, Andrew Samuels, The Plural Psyche:: Personality, Morality, and the Father, Routledge, →ISBN, page 123,

     The father's presence and image, together with those of the mother, form the raw material of the primal scene.

   • 1995, Joel Whitebook, Perversion and Utopia: a study in psychoanalysis and critical theory, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 51,

     She argues that perverse sexual activity constitutes an attempt to restage the primal scene in such a way as to eliminate its traumatic aspects.