ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a male whose female partner requires him to fulfil a repairing function of the internal models concerning the triadic relation, in as much as the relationship with her children imposes the urgent need of bringing about this change. It shows how the situation reveals a useful transformative potential with the help of therapy; that is to say, the analyst assumes the role of witness that participates internally in this process of transformation, thus becoming a new object that the patients can use by exploiting the potentiality of regression. The sexual instinct for Freud is the force moving every psychic dynamic: from the search for a relationship with the other, as an object of desire, to the dream, which creates representations and metaphors. In its pre-oedipal form, oral, anal, and phallic, it constitutes a powerful source of psychopathology that drives individuals towards regressive forms of satisfying desire through the creation of collusive and sadomasochistic relationships.
