The Sexual Subtype

Psychoanalytic Theory

The Sexual 6 could be fixed in the phallic phase of infantile sexual development, according to Freud.86 At this stage, both the boy and the girl consider only the male genital organ (it is not yet the genital phase, which would give rise to adult sexual development): the libido is masculine in nature, both in men and women.

The child's anxiety is closely linked to the castration phantom (castration complex) and the relational game of the Oedipus complex. The boy will be conditioned by the threat of castration by the powerful father, due to his interest in his own penis, which he experiences as part of himself, while the girl will develop so-called penis envy, leading to a conflict with the mother. This is because the lack of the penis was the cause of her narcissistic injury, prompting her to identify with the father in an attempt to recover the potency of the penis.

In the mother-father-child triad, the child shows a marked ambivalence when trying to seduce the mother (in rivalry with the father) while also manifesting tender attitudes towards him, which Freud assumes as homosexual components.

In this Freudian elaboration, we can observe the link with Claudio Naranjo's definition of "masculine characters" concerning Enneatypes 5, 6, and 7 (schizoid characters).

86.See S. Freud, Obras Completas, Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid, 1997.

In the counterphobic E6, the libidinal (narcissistic) investment in the phallus is related to its typical ambivalence in the sexual sphere: the marked conflict between the drive for sexuality and the feeling of guilt, which often hides the fear of making a fatal mistake that entails punishment (castration). Sexual desire must contend with a powerful/castrating superego that the Sexual 6 Enneatype tries to neutralize: on one hand, by inhibiting their own drives; and on the other, by challenging this persecuting superego (the authoritarian and punitive parental figure). However, they are repeatedly caught in the conflict between the need for love and the need to fight the parent to release their own sexual energies. In women, this often leads to competition with men, difficulty in assuming a passive (welcoming) role in the sexual relationship, and a fear of surrendering to tenderness.

In subsequent psychoanalytic elaborations, castration anxiety has been separated from a specific referent, assuming more symbolic value in terms of loss of love and fear of punishment.

Melanie Klein87 speaks of "positions": infantile object relation modalities that can crystallize. The paranoid-schizoid position is characterized by the mechanism of splitting an object that presents a persecutory character. In the first months of life, the child enters into a relationship with partial images of the mother (not yet experiencing her as a complex whole). The love object is partial, and the child experiences it in ambivalence as either good or bad (dangerous). The child tries to resolve the anguish (fear) caused by this ambivalence by clearly separating what is "good" from what is "bad," introjecting and projecting this duality onto the object. The child projects love onto the "good" object and aggressiveness onto the "bad" one while introjecting both the "good" and the "dangerous" objects.

87.M. Klein, The Psychoanalysis of Children, Paidós, Barcelona, 1994.

In 1935, Klein introduced the concept of the depressive position, which is established in the second semester of life, when the mother is perceived as unique. If the child fails to move to the depressive position, where they discover that the person they love and hate is the same, they remain in ambivalence and persecutory anxiety.

Klein, evoking the Freudian distinction between objective anxiety (provoked by external danger) and neurotic anxiety (internal danger), observes:

"[...] the child's complete dependence on his mother for the satisfaction of his needs and the relief of stress. The anxiety arising from this source can be called objective anxiety. The other important source of anxiety arises from the baby's fear that the beloved mother has been destroyed by her sadistic impulses or is in danger of being destroyed, and this fear—which might be called 'neurotic anxiety' [...] contributes to the feeling that the baby will never come back. [...] As soon as he misses his mother, he behaves as if he were never going to see her again."88

We could say that the Sexual 6 tries to resolve the anguish through reactive omnipotent aggressiveness, aiming to control the persecutory object (beloved). They project everything bad onto others with the illusion of preserving the good within themselves. From here, we can understand the typical accusation mechanism of this character.

In Karen Horney's89 description of neurosis, Sexual 6 is recognized within the framework of conflict resolution defined by her as renunciation, and specifically in the types of resigning neurotics and openly rebellious ones. The renouncing neurotic shows a significant restriction in their actions linked to desires, existing as a "spectator of themselves and their own life."

88.M. Klein, On the Theory of Anxiety and Guilt, in Collected Works II, RBA, Barcelona, 2006, p. 49. 89.K. Horney, Neurosis and Human Development, Psyche, Buenos Aires, 1955.

The renouncing neurotic may give up their ambitions for success because they imply great effort and, moreover, the danger of becoming a prisoner of others' expectations, with the responsibility this entails. They prefer to cultivate intense imaginative activity, nurturing a high ideal of themselves but postponing actions that would allow it to materialize, or they easily forget the commitments they made. In reality, the commitments put them face-to-face with the anxiety of responding to others and feeling within a coercive relationship.

They may be convinced that they are pursuing what they want, but in reality, they do not know what they want and lose their sense of direction because they are disconnected from the desires and emotional implications it entails. This absence of desire leads them to such

a state of detachment that they can enter a strong inertia, not only in terms of effective actions but also regarding feelings and sexuality. The anxiety to merge and lose themselves in another person is too strong, so they cautiously maintain a safe distance. Horney says:

"In marriage, you can show concern for your spouse but not make confidences about yourself; they will insist on their right to be an employer for most of their time and to travel alone. They may also limit the relationship to short periods of vacations or trips."90

The rebellious renunciator, in short, is extremely neurotically concerned with influences, coercions, and ties.

90.Ibid.

Anyone expressing desires toward them represents a danger because they will force them to submit to their interests. The projective mechanism by which they place their coercive and hostile attitudes on others, rather than recognizing their real difficulties in being "free" (that is, "themselves"), is evident.

The counterphobic E6 does not totally give in to inertia, paralyzing every aspect of their life, but rather maintains a certain vitality and recognizes personal resources. They may, therefore, have ambitions and a certain consistency in their fight against falsehood or authoritarianism. However, the basic state of anguish remains, which feeds an omnipotent, ghostly world, revealing no true position of independence or decisive action.

With rebellion, the sexual Enneatype E6 does nothing but neurotically defend their inner world. Their rebellion is typically characterized by defiance, often against and not for. It is not true detachment; it is rather the fear of becoming a slave to the needs and interference of others. Horney, speaking of the rebellious renunciator's childhood, highlights the presence of an egocentric, authoritarian, or extremely "lunatic" parent, toward whom the child has been unable to develop trust and a sense of being recognized for their individuality. Having suffered abuse and mistreatment, their main interest is to protect their integrity.

The counterphobic perceives others as violent and threatening and manufactures weapons to defend themselves in a belligerent attitude against any type of corruption or power. In short, they hide the deep inertia of their inner world with a defiant and openly rebellious movement.

Adolescent Phobia

In Guidano's description of the phobic organization during the adolescent phase, the counterphobic character can be clearly distinguished. The tendency toward autonomy increases, and the adolescent must face a world they perceive as dangerous. At this point, self-control is seen as a feeling of self aimed at overcoming weakness. The adolescent identifies with the need for freedom and is forced to exclude any feeling of insecurity. They satisfy the need to feel autonomous concerning the physical presence of others.

Personal self-esteem and capacity are identified with the control exercised over the constant internal modulation from fear. Instead of being aware of this self-control over emotions, the adolescent perceives themselves as autonomous and independent. "Since they must exclude the entire range of emotions that would show dependence on others, the phobic has great difficulty recognizing a significant emotional commitment to an affectionate figure."91

Specifically, in the counterphobic, while rebellion is an attempt to differentiate oneself, it fails to separate with effective actions that lead to emotional autonomy. Thus, the separation/individuation polarity remains in ambivalence (which is mutually exclusive).

91.Vittorio F. Guidano, La Complessità del Sé, Bollati Boringhieri, Turin 1988. 92.Ibid.