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

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

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

This variety of the primal scene was televised; in some quarters, including in a narrow majority of the Senate, it was celebrated.

From The New Yorker

It’s all enough to make Arthur Ashe Stadium a vast primal scene for Williams.

From New York Times