Grudge and the hysteric

Our understanding of the bizarre sexuality of the hysteric began with Freud's discovery that its roots lay in infantile sexuality, but since then little knowledge has been added. This paper argues that the hysteric in early childhood deals with the failures of good-enough mothering and care by precocious sexual development, which is accompanied by an inability to be nurtured by any loving relationship. Sexual solutions to problems prove, for the hysteric, temporary, and inevitably end in grudge and complaints, as the love-object misreads the hysteric's gestures as expressing sexual wishes and desires instead of as a symbolic body language for care and protection. The author briefly examines the nature of the deprivation in childhood and the reason that the hysteric is such a promising yet recalcitrant patient, and offers a case illustration.