The Sexual Dimension in the Primary Relationship

After reviewing the writings on infants of Freud and Jung, respectively, the author’s purpose is to show how both parents, but especially the mother, must cope with the sexual solicitations emanating from an infant, and what resources are available to them. Next, the author evokes images of the Nativity, representing the self, as a collective support for the process of de-sexualizing experiences relative to infant care. The fate meted out to the sexual in the psyche of the parents will be the basis for the ego/self articulation which will structure the child’s emerging psyche.