Triangular Dynamics and Triangular Space: A Response to Shelley Nathans’ “Oedipus for Everyone: Revitalizing the Model for LGBTQ Couples and Single Parent Families”

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper elaborates the post-Kleinian understanding of the Oedipal Complex. It considers the idea of the development of ‘triangular space’ as an outcome of the Oedipal situation and concurs with Nathans (this issue) that this development can take place regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or couple and family configuration. Psychic development can be conceptualized in linear terms but in reality it involves much returning to earlier stages or reworking them from later positions. This reworking is seen in the interplay between triangulation, triadic, as well as dyadic relating, in all three of Nathans’s clinical examples. Creative couple relating is seen as one manifestation of the development of triangular space and it is suggested that being able to function creatively in couple and family relationships can be challenging and depends on a capacity for negative capability, managing difference and otherness, and managing hate in the context of love.