Psychical incest on two levels, mother-father, mother-son, may be a risk factor for fraternal violence, as may be seen in the treatment of a boy in late adolescence presented by the author. In cases where there is a parental configuration of an incestuous type and a traumatic brother, we observe a complex internal object, the killing brother, who constantly destroys within the psyche. To limit, or even eliminate, the damaging action of this internal object, it is useful for the analyst to be able to represent, from the position of the counter-transference, both the parent and the brother, ceaselessly moving between one and the other. The killing brother object is rendered harmless by being removed from his false place as nuclear object and place back into his place as an orbital object. The interpretation, in the founding myth, of Eteocles and Polynices, the warring brothers, enables us to deepen our knowledge of different aspects of this psychical reality.

Adolescence, 2009, T. 27, n°1, pp. 133-142.