Sibling trauma: a theoretical consideration

This chapter is an attempt to open up the question of a theoretical model of sibling-sibling relations from the perspective of psychoanalysis. The vertical model of psychoanalysis revolves around the twin poles of trauma and desire: desire for the mother that is eliminated through the threatened trauma of castration. The birth of a sibling is frequently described, both colloquially and in the psychoanalytical literature, as “traumatic” for the older child, particularly the toddler at the height of his/her phallic omnipotence. A psychological trauma in the strong sense is like a physical trauma — a shock or wound that because of its excessive strength breaks through a surface. The psychological illnesses of childhood have either implicitly been understood as weak trauma or as “actual neuroses”, or interpreted as psychogenic but caused by Oedipal-castration problems.