Oedipus Rex : Psychoanalytic Foundation of Child Psychopathology

1. Oedipus Rex : Psychoanalytic Foundation of Child Psychopathology • 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

2. Myth of Oedipus Rex (Sophocles) • 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”

4. Synopsis of Case of Little Hans • 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

5. 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

6. Outline of Oedipus Complex • 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

7. For boys—wish to have mother exclusively, to get rid of rival father 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) For girls—wish to have mother exclusively, to get rid of rival father 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) Oedipus Complex takes two different paths for boys and girls

8. Positive and negative Oedipus Complex • 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)

9. Parracide and Its Relation to the Oedipus Complex (Loewald) • Parents are killed off in fantasy • As authority figures (internalized) • As libidinal objects (gratifications sought in others) • Superego formation documents this murder • 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

10. Successful resolution of Oedipus Complex • 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

11. Importance of preoedipal factors • 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

12. Problem of Oedipal Development for Girls (Jones)-Two Views of Oedipal Development • 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

13. Social and Political Implications of Oedipus Complex (Benjamin) • 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

14. Objections to Thesis • 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)