The bomb in the chrysalis : analytic neutrality, negative transference, and coming out : a discussion of Madeleine Price's "Early trauma, societal oppression and coming out"

L. Crespi

This paper discusses Madeleine Price's "Early trauma, societal oppression and coming out", focusing on the issues of early cumulative trauma and societal and familial stigma and oppression. Where intrapsychic trauma converges with social stigma, internalized homophobia continues to be an important factor in the suffering and even deaths of countless men and women who have been unable to throw off its pernicious weight. When an individual's internalized early objects are sadistic, cruel, self-attacking, or excessively harsh, as in the case presented, societal stigma and anti-homosexual bias are incorporated into these negative introjects making the process of integration of one's homosexual or bisexual orientation much more difficult and even fraught with danger. These issue are elaborated upon in the discussion of Price's clinical treatment of her patient, Maggie.