primal scene

noun

, Psychoanalysis.

1. a child's first real or imagined observation of parental sexual intercourse.

Word History and Origins

Origin of primal scene¹

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

In a 1961 biography of his uncle, Milton Brasher recounted a primal scene between Rex’s father, Philip, an amateur ornithologist, and Audubon, who had invited and then rebuffed a visit from the elder Brasher.

From Washington Post

This is a primal scene of American dance, and a version of it is on Broadway now.

From New York Times

“You struggle to find the words to describe what’s before us. It just shows a kind of primal scene that provides an insight into the nature of anti-black oppression across the ages.”

From Washington Post

There is the empty coffee can, crammed with paintbrushes, something like Johns’s primal scene, which he has sculpted and cast in bronze, made into a lithograph and painted at various points in his career.

From New York Times

Freud, who based his theory of the primal scene on the trauma of seeing one’s parents having sex, would have probably agreed with this view.

From The New Yorker