Online Discussion with

Juliet Mitchell, MA, FBA

Author of Siblings: Sex and Violence

Sibling relationships have been undertheorized in psychoanalysis, which is dominated by a vertical model emphasizing parent-child dynamics. This view broadened with the publication of Juliet Mitchell’s groundbreaking book, Siblings: Sex and Violence, published in 2003. Without devaluing the vertical-parental axis, Mitchell asserted the importance of the lateral sibling dimension in the structuring of the mind. She described how the birth of a new sibling and its competition for parental love can be experienced as the death of the subject’s self in the mother’s mind. The child who thus feels annihilated, in turn, wants to annihilate the newborn rival. In recognizing these murderous wishes, the mother institutes the “law of the mother” by sanctioning rivalrous play as a solution. The older sibling’s murderousness is thus transformed into aggressive play and healthy rivalry as socially acceptable solutions. In some cases, however, the rivalry and aggression devolve into psychopathology. The lateral dimension of sibling relationships inevitably has formative influences on identity, gender roles, and peer relationships. Sibling issues and psychic representations resurface in adult work and social relationships; psychoanalytic patients’ dreams and associations, transference toward the analyst, and fantasies about analytic siblings; and the clinician’s countertransference.

The presentation and discussion with Juliet Mitchell offer a rich opportunity to engage with a deep thinker who has contributed foundational concepts to psychoanalytic theory. She will summarize the ideas delineated in her classic text, Siblings: Sex and Violence, share her thinking about sibling relationships and psychic influences in the 20 years since the book’s publication, and dialogue with the audience about these issues.

After attending the program in its entirety, participants will be able to:

Juliet Mitchell, MA, FBA trained as a psychoanalyst in the 1970s and worked full time in private practice in London and then Cambridge. She also held an academic post at Cambridge from 1996 until 2008. She is currently Professorial Research Associate in the Psychoanalysis Unit at University College London, where she established and directed the M/Phil and PhD programs. She still writes and teaches worldwide. In addition to Siblings: Sex and Violence, a partial list of her publications includes: Psychoanalysis and Feminism (1974), Jacques Lacan and the Ecole Fruedienne: Feminine Sexuality (1982), The Selected Melanie Klein (1986), and Mad Men and Medusas: Reclaiming Hysteria and the Effects of Sibling Relations (2000).

Bailly, L. (2022). The maternal covenant role and the function of the mother in the social field. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 103: 26-45.

Balsam, R. H. (2013) Sibling interaction. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 67: 35-52.

Gilmore, K. (2013). The theory of sibling trauma and the lateral dimension. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 67: 53-65.

Mitchell, J. (2003). Siblings: Sex and Violence. Polity.

Mitchell, J. (2013). Siblings: Thinking theory. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 67: 14-34.

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