ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at Marie through the lens of a developmental snag, the interruption of healthy adolescent self-confidence, and how this is reflected in Marie’s absence of desire. Elise defines the originating context in which sexual desire is formed and develops. Parental care forms the erotic template for adult life. Maternal eroticism infuses a mother’s relation to her child; it is within this matrix that a child experiences a sensually based relation with another, where desire stirs within the rhythms of this primal interchange. Libidinal life is ignited. In the case of Marie, the task is to understand the reason for Marie to have lost her desire. The treatment relationship would establish, possibly for the first time, a potential space for contact with a self that can desire and restart the experience of being in synch with present time, rather than time past.
