Edith Wharton’s Threshold Phobia and Two Worlds

The American novelist Edith Wharton suffered an unusual childhood neurotic symptom, a fear of crossing thresholds, a condition that might be called a “threshold phobia.” This symptom is identified and examined in autobiographical material, letters, diaries, and selected literary fiction and nonfiction left by Wharton to arrive at a formulation not previously drawn together. A fascinating theme—living or being trapped between “two worlds”—runs through much of the writer’s life and work. The phobia is related to this theme, and both can be linked more broadly to certain sexual conflicts in women. This understanding of Wharton’s phobia, it is argued, throws new light on the developmental issues and conflicts related to the female “oedipal” or triadic phase, characterized by the need to negotiate the two worlds of mother and of father

Psychoanalysis · Psychotherapist · American and British Literature Analysis · American Literature and Culture · Philosophy · Poetry Analysis and Criticism · Psychology

• The Reproduction of Mothering

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• Father's seduction of daughter entices her into the Oedipal phase

  Ruth F Lax•Psychoanalytic Psychology•2007

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• A Feast of Words

  Cynthia B Taft, Cynthia Griffin Wolff•American Literature•1978

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• A Woman’s Homosexual Transference with a Male Analyst

  Sheldon Roth, Sheldon H Roth•The Psychoanalytic Quarterly•1988

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• Female exhibitionism

  Open Access•Deanna Holtzman, Nancy Kulish•The International Journal of…•2012

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• Integrating Male and Female Elements in a Woman's gEnder Identity

  Open Access•Rosemary Balsam, Rosemary H Balsam•Journal of the American…•2001

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• Sex and Shame

  Open Access•Dianne Elise•Journal of the American…•2008

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• Where Do We Fall When We Fall In Love

  Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, Elisabeth Young‐bruehl•Psychoanalysis Culture & Society•2003

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• Sadomasochism, Sexual Excitement, and Perversion

  Open Access•Otto F Kernberg•Journal of the American…•1991

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• Female Sexuality

  Pamela H Pearson, J Chasseguet-Smirgel et al.•Journal of Marriage and the Family•1971

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