ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates that the discovery of the Medea fantasy was a prerequisite for Mrs B to give up her unconscious defence of psychogenic frigidity and sterility and to integrate her own female destructiveness into her female identity. This had been required in order to overcome her extreme fear of dependency on her love partner, to discover sexual passion, and, finally, to become pregnant. The chapter provides some findings of a large EU study on ethical dilemmas due to prenatal and genetic diagnostics, thus mentioning a circumstance of our contemporary society in which all “normal” women may be confronted with the terrorising, unconscious Medea fantasies. As the crisis intervention with Ms E tried to illustrate, a woman going through such an emotionally taxing situation has to mobilise extreme forms of coping, together with defence strategies, in order to “survive” the acute situation.
