“The Baby With the Cream Puffs”: Further Complications in Oedipal Complexities, Commentary on Paper by Jody Messler Davies

Abstract

Davies (this issue) recasts the pathologizing/heteronormative “positive and negative” Oedipus complex into a model where “primary and secondary” oedipal configurations constitute the kaleidoscope of sensual/erotic experience—for heterosexually and homosexually developing individuals. Further complexity could include nontraditional (e.g., lesbian-/gay-parented) families and the development of their children. If there is no genital difference between parents, no clear gender-role divide—and the (relational) triangle is only the beginning—how do we conceptualize the development of these children, who are likely to be heterosexual with a “typical” gender identity? Davies points us toward the multiplicity inherent in the disowned unconscious longings (and communications) of any parent—or in Laplanche’s terms, the plurality contained in the adult and its elaboration in the “enigmatic message” to the child. Such enigmatic communications, in addition to more lateral and cultural influences, may constitute the unconscious substrate (if not the cause) of fluid, complex gender and erotic subjectivities.