Freudian contributions on the antagonism between activity and passivity in psicosexual development: from childhood fantasy to adolescent reality

• Grant number: 24/09295-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2024
• End date: July 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Janaina Namba
• Grantee: Fernanda Digieri dos Santos
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Freud's work is marked by dualism, being the antagonism between activity and passivity highlighted as the precursor of the sexual polarity that runs through the psyche. Passivity is predominant in childhood, considering that the infant experiences helplessness since the moment of birth, and although they progressively conquer greater autonomy over their own body, their capacity for action in reality is limited to the possibilities made available by the family. This passivity, however, is not absolute, because the child elaborates the renunciation of their drives by relying on fantasy, as demonstrated in the game of the reel, reported by Freud in 1920. Puberty, however, marks the beginning of what we now call adolescence, and brings with it several transformations in the psychosexual dynamics. These changes involve the detachment of family authority and an urgency to move to the act in the sphere of reality, with fantasy being no longer sufficient to placate one's anxieties. Thus, the present work intends to investigate whether there are theoretical subsidies in Freud's work to describe adolescence as a transitory psychic period in relation to the activity-passivity antagonism, marking the abandonment of infantile passivity as the pubescent begins to conquer the capacity for activity in the sphere of reality, not only expressing it in the imaginary field. To this end, an analysis of Freud's work will be carried out from a reading of the articulation, delineations and projections that Freud's discourse proposes. In addition, it is intended to investigate the use of theatrical staging in adolescence as a mechanism of psychic elaboration of puberty transformations, based on the freudian reinterpretation of the "S. B. Case", from 1972.