primal scene

American  

noun

Psychoanalysis.

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

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Etymology

Origin of primal scene

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

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 • Feb. 18, 2019

That description of the monster’s birth, which became the primal scene in all the films, is actually fairly cursory.

From Economist • Feb. 15, 2018

This primal scene makes sense to readers who are familiar with the Western genre.

From The Verge • Aug. 8, 2017

It’s the primal scene of American hard-boiled detective fiction: A private investigator, resentfully dressed up in his best suit, drives up to an old man’s imposing mansion.

From Washington Post • Oct. 28, 2016

The preacher sketched lightly the primal scene to which his text related.

From The Main Chance by Nicholson, Meredith