The mother’s seduction. Margarethe Hilferding forerunner of Sigmund Freud

Journal title PSICOTERAPIA E SCIENZE UMANE
Author/s Cesare Romano
Publishing Year 2023 Issue 2023/3
Language Italian Pages 24 P. 455-478 File size 118 KB
DOI 10.3280/PU2023-003008
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Starting from the little known report that Margarethe Hilferding, the first woman ac- cepted into the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society (VPS), held in January 1911 on the topic of mother’s love, it is attempted to show that the speaker was more than twenty years in advance compared with Freud’s theory of the mother as the first seducer. Furthermore, Hilferding will bring to light the two-way sexual relationship between mother and toddler, underlining the erotic experience that involves both mother and son. Hilferding argued that to the sexuality of the son, that she viewed as a natural sexual object for the mother, the mother replies with a mutual erotic sensitivity, which was never mentioned in Freud’s later writings. Freud quoted Hilferding only to point out that she left the VPS for the Adlerian group. Moreover, Margarethe Hilferding is neglected by the most psychoanalytic scholars, despite her pioneering contribution.

Keywords: Margarethe Hilferding; Vienna Psychoanalytic Society; Mother’s seduction; Freud and feminin- ity; Adlerian secession]

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Cesare Romano, La seduzione materna. Margarethe Hilferding precorritrice di Sigmund Freud in "PSICOTERAPIA E SCIENZE UMANE" 3/2023, pp 455-478, DOI: 10.3280/PU2023-003008