Biphasic symptom formation in a hysterical neurosis

The author reports the case of a young man's hysteria, which shows a biphas ic conversion symptomatology. In this case the biphasicness of the symptom formation can be differentiated from the biphasic symptom formation of the obsessional neurosis, for which Freud (1916/17, S. 311) once reserved this special feature of symptom configuration. In the present case it is not the defence mechanism of undoing which leads to the periodic change of the sym ptomatology, but the different symptoms (psychogenic paraparalysis and psyc hogenic fits) present symbolically the bivalence of the oedipal relations, the libidinous relation to the mother on the one hand and the aggressive re lation to the father on the other hand. Only the dissociation of the relati ons to mother and Father, connected in the oedipal triangle before, enable this biphasic symptomatology. This dissociation results from the exceptiona l feature of the patients's passive-feminine character formation, in the co urse of which process the oedipal relationship to the father is partly regr essing into the anal stage and is thus removed from the oedipal triangle.