Oedipus Rex : Psychoanalytic Foundation
of Child Psychopathology
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Difficult readings—important to get outline of
Oedipus complex
Controversy surrounding gender development,
gender identity, importance of earlier phases of
development, importance to the development of
psychic structure
Importance of sexual body parts to underlying
theory
Myth of Oedipus Rex (Sophocles)
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Laius prophesied to die by son’s own hand
Laius sets son out to die
Unknowingly, son Oedipus survives, returns to
where his parents lived, kills his father, and
commits incest with his mother
Freud read play, believed that patients were
telling him the same story in their dreams,
fantasies, and free associations, so he called this
central conflict “Oedipus Complex”
Synopsis of Case of Little Hans
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5-year-old boy had phobia of going into
street
Phobia of horses
Fear that horses were going to bite off his
genitals
Freud reasoned that Little Hans wanted to
kill father, have mother
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Little Hans feared retaliation for his wishes
through castration
Little Hans could not experience these wishes
and fears directly toward father because he also
loved his father
Displacement onto horses, which has become
associated to father
Interpretation of this conflict resulted in remission
of symptoms
Outline of Oedipus Complex
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Asymmetry of conflict for boy and girl
Both boy and girl develop first attachment, filled
with sexual longing, to mother
Separation-individuation results in separate self
who desires mother, who consists of good and bad
parts (object constancy)
Capacity to observe father, his relationship with
mother
At around same time perception of anatomical
differences takes place
•Oedipus Complex takes two different paths for
boys and girls
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For boys—wish to have
mother exclusively, to
get rid of rival father
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Fear of retaliation
through castration (sees
girl without penis)
Gives up wish, identifies
with aggressor (A. Freud)
and prohibitions, and
sublimates feelings until
he can displace them
onto someone like
mother (a female peer)
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For girls—wish to have
mother exclusively, to get
rid of rival father
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Wish to have penis that
mother would not provide;
disappointed that they are
without penis
Displacement of wishes onto
father, who will give them the
penis and a baby
Father gives penis to mother,
not her, so sublimates
feelings until she can
displace them onto someone
like father (a male peer)
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Positive and negative Oedipus Complex
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Positive Oedipus Complex—love opposite-sex
parent and hate same-sex parent
Negative Oedipus Complex—hate opposite-sex
parent and love same-sex parent (like the
negative of a photograph)
Parracide and Its Relation to the
Oedipus Complex (Loewald)
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Parents are killed off in fantasy
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As authority figures (internalized)
As libidinal objects (gratifications sought in others)
Superego formation documents this murder
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Atones for murder by prohibiting incest
Restores relationships intrapsychically
Lack of mourning over loss produces guilt and need for
punishment, which seeks to avoid guilt
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Successful resolution of Oedipus Complex
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Acknowledgment of murderous impulses
(parracide) –facing and bearing this guilt
Acknowledgment of loving impulses (incest) –
feeling and bearing this guilt
Integration of conflicting needs rather than one
set of needs defending against the other
The king is dead, long live the king
Recreating these murdered relationships through
novel love relations
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Importance of preoedipal factors
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The effects of the psychotic core for
understanding identification and object cathexes
Transferences arising from psychotic core permit
temporary suspension of subject-object
boundaries and phenomenon of empathy
Superego aids in ultimate separation—
individuation
Problem of Oedipal Development for Girls
(Jones)-Two Views of Oedipal Development
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Girls have “male attitude” (clitoris = penis) and enter into
female identification through disappointment in clitoris
Girls begin with “female attitude” (nipple = penis) and
temporarily enter into male identification through
disappointment in not receiving penis (father’s incorporated
into mother through act of fellatio) – mother is refusing to give
it to her
Fear of mother’s castration (wanting to rob mother) results in
flight to male attitude according to view B. (imperfect nipple
satisfaction need bigger nipple (penis))
Ultimately, wishes for penis are sublimated and displaced
onto male peers during adolescence
Social and Political Implications of Oedipus
Complex (Benjamin)
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Oedipus Complex represents a repudiation of the
identification with mother, including her roles as
nurturer and source of recognition
Because of this repudiation and the resulting
consequences of pseudo-autonomy and
independence, boys repress their identification with
omnipotent mother, along with feelings of
dependency and helplessness
This unconscious omnipotence gets reenacted in
subjugation of women and nature, polarity of gender
roles and mutuality/autonomy continuum
Boundaries between subject and object need to be
loosened, not tightened, allowing for more
identification with mother
Objections to Thesis
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Romanticizing of female oedipal development
Dismissing role of difference in physical strength between
men and women and its role in subjugation of women
Lack of consideration for aggressive, sexual drives
Optimistic view of lack of development of psychic structure
for taming of the destructive instinct (pp. 224, 238)
Problem is with Oedipus Complex and men (p.220), but
omnipotence, separation-individuation issues take place
between mother and infant (p. 227)