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Karl [[Abraham]] (1916) examined the connection between excessive giving and [[anxiety]]. He investigated (1919) the transference meaning of the associations—occasionally excessive—presented by the [[patient]] to the [[psychoanalyst]] as a gift. This attitude is an expression of [[narcissism]] and is characterized by its view of [[analysis]] as something governed by the [[pleasure]] [[principle]]. What happens to the [[instinctual]] impulses of [[anal eroticism]] after the [[genital]] organization has been established? Freud in "On Transformations of Instinct as Exemplified in Anal Eroticism" (1916-17e) responds with the [[idea]] of the transformation of instinct. In this [[schema]], gift equals excrement according to the [[symbolic]] [[language]] of the [[dream]] and daily life. The first gift is excrement, a part of the [[infant]]'s [[body]] he gives up only upon the [[mother]]'s [[insistence]] and through which he manifests his [[love]] for her. Defecation and its relation to the [[object]] thus become the first opportunity for the infant to choose between [[bodily]] pleasure (narcissism) and object love (sacrifice). Later in life the interest in excrement is transferred to an interest in gifts and money. The [[concepts]] of excrement, infant, and [[penis]] are poorly distinguished and are frequently treated as if they were equivalent; they can easily be substituted for one [[another]]. Freud perceived the [[identity]] of the infant with excrement in the [[linguistic]] expression: "to give a child." Similarly, Freud wrote in the "[[Wolf Man]]" (1918b), "By way of this detour demonstrating a common point of departure in their [[significance]] as gifts, money can now attract to itself the meaning of [[children]], and in this way take over the expression of [[feminine]] ([[homosexual]]) [[satisfaction]]." Freud views the transference relation of certain patients as a vague [[recollection]] of this problematic, arising whenever the patient wants to interrupt the unfinished treatment and [[place]] himself in a [[situation]] of disdain that originates in the [[outside]] [[world]]. The patient then replaces the urgent [[desire]] to have a child with promises of significant gifts, most often as unrealistic as the object of his [[past]] desire. This [[concept]] is developed in Beyond the [[Pleasure Principle]] (1920g). Melanie [[Klein]] (1932-1975) demonstrated the importance of the theme of poison gifts as a source of [[depression]] and [[melancholy]] toward the object. "For the child gifts attenuate his [[guilt]] by symbolizing the free gift of what he wanted to obtain by [[sadistic]] means." In this same article, Klein clarifies the [[role]] of [[ambivalence]] and sees it as a step forward compared to archaic mechanisms. The gift provides access; it is a preliminary [[form]] of [[sublimation]] within the compulsions of reparation and restitution associated with obsessive [[behavior]]. ==See Also==* [[Anality]]* [[Money in psychoanalytic treatmen]] ==References==<references/># Abraham, Karl. (1966). Examen de l'étape prégénitale la plus précoce du [[développement]] de la libido. [[Complete]] works, vol. 2, 1915-1925. (pp. 231-254) (I. Barande, Trans.) [[Paris]]: Payot. (Original [[work]] published 1916)# ——. (1979). A [[particular]] form of [[neurotic]] [[resistance]] against the psycho-analytic method. (pp. 303-311) In Selected papers of [[Karl Abraham]], M.D. (Douglas Bryan and Alix Strachey, Trans.) New York: Brunner/Mazel. (Original work published 1927)# [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1908b). [[Character]] and anal erotism. SE,9: 169-175.# ——. (1916-17e). On transformations of instinct as exemplified in anal erotism. SE, 17: 127-133.# ——. (1918b). From the [[history]] of an [[infantile]] [[neurosis]]. SE, 17: 1-122.# ——. (1920g). Beyond the [[pleasure principle]]. SE, 18: 1-64.# Klein, Melanie. (1975). The psycho-analysis of children. (Alix Strachey, Trans.) [[London]]: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1932) [[Category:New]] Gift(-giving), 18, 19, 33, 76, 95, 99, 100, 108, 115, 159 <ref>Muller, John P. and William J. Richardson. [[Lacan ]] and Language: A Reader's [[Guide ]] to [[Ecrits]]. New York: International Universiites Press, Inc., 1982.</ref>