ABSTRACT
On observing a particular emotional pattern in many of my patients, my interest has been provoked by the phenomenon of holding back and letting go, and the sense of gratification in having power over these functions. In an everyday sense, withholding or giving can be used as a means of influence and control, of reward and punishment. Psychoanalytically, the importance of this phenomenon, initially noted by Freud (1905d) in the Three Essays, was formulated as an interest and pleasure in defecation and urination—in expelling and holding in—and featured as an expression of self-will or defiance by the small child towards the parent.
