Proceedings: A child is being beaten.

Abstract

The psychotherapy of a patient presenting the fantasy ‘A Child is Being Beaten’ is described. Reference to Freud's paper on the subject throws light on many aspects of the case history which can probably be regarded as typical of the type of clinical material on which he based his eonclusions but which he did not publish. Freud concluded that the beating fantasy was the product of a regression to the preoedipal, analsadistic phase of libido development at which the patients were fixated and the present case material would seem to provide verification of this assumption, especially in the light of later work elaborating Freud's original observations on the preoedipal phase. The continuing relevance of psychoanalytic psychotherapy in the treatment of personality disorder is stressed.