Oedipal Dynamics Research Articles

Mother Nature and Father Time: Oedipal Imbalance and the Premature Structuring of Reality in Compulsive Sexual Behaviour

The author proposes that particular oedipal dynamics in individuals suffering with compulsive sexual behaviours tend to be characterized by imbalance between maternal and paternal functions. The maternal object is experienced as overwhelming and potentially annihilating. The paternal object is relatively weak and incapable of moderating fear of symbiosis. There is failure to develop a triangular space within the mind to enable the capacity to apprehend psychic reality and to relate. Compulsive sexual behaviours are defined as a series of compelling sexualized enactments, which function as a ‘curative device’ to prevent psychic collapse. Due to a lack of adequate internalized paternal function, perverse enactments signify premature attempts to structure reality. Enactment mitigates emotional contact and manifests within the here‐and‐now of treatment. The psychotherapist has to contend with enticements and pressures to act, sometimes in a retaliatory way. The setting or frame, representing the paternal function, is an arena for these dynamics to be manifest. There is an inducement to be drawn towards ‘management’ rather than the ‘being with’ of the maternal function.

Oedipus for Everyone: Revitalizing the Model for LGBTQ Couples and Single Parent Families

ABSTRACT The misguided application of Oedipal theory has led to the pathologizing of those with different gender identities or sexual preferences. Despite this harm, Oedipal dynamics are often viewed as a central organizing schema for understanding the dynamics of couples and families. In this paper, I revitalize Oedipal theory, divorcing it from its historical heterosexist bias, and highlighting its relevance for working with couple and family relationships, including LGBTQ and single parent households. Rather than using classical Freudian Oedipal theory which situates Oedipus in the psychosexual development of children, I use a contemporary Kleinian/Bionian model to orient the discussion to the relevance of Oedipal issues in adult relationships. Problematic Oedipal dynamics are not always present, but when they dominate or underlie adult relationships, they can be stifling, destabilizing, and destructive. This perspective emphasizes the importance of considering Oedipal triadic structures when working with diverse couples and families.

Discussion of “A family with oedipal dynamics” by Li Yanling, with David E. Scharff

Discussion of “A family with oedipal dynamics” by Li Yanling, with David E. Scharff

A family with oedipal dynamics

The following case presents the way that overtly oedipal identification in a young woman covered failure in early parental care and discontent between her parents. The case was presented by Li Yanling to her supervision group, and the commentary and elaboration have been gathered from comments from the entire group of advanced supervisees, all of whom were discussion group leaders in the Beijing Continuous Program in Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Therapy.

Hamlet: plea for a measure of normality

ABSTRACTThe author first considers issues in psychoanalytic interpretations of literary characters, especially the question of treating the character as fiction (the aesthetic illusion) or as a real person. The position he adopts is to interpret Hamlet as a potential person, created by Shakespeare and an expression of Shakespeare’s actual – and intuitive – view of man.With a synopsis of the tragedy and the context of its creation as background, the author then reflects on questions concerning the play. How does Shakespeare present the characters? Is Hamlet’s madness pretended or real? Which conflicts does he handle in the course of the play? Has Oedipal dynamics a role as motivational factor in his mind?Hamlet is irrational, impulsive, emotional, inhibited, brooding, suspicious, revengeful, condemning and much more. But, in the view of the author, he is all this in a human, ‘normal’ way. There is nothing convincingly pathological or constricted in his character. ‘Un-normal’ is his intelligence and his wit. Hamlet – an intelligent, reflected, resourceful prince in late Renaissance – who has wrestle with a madhouse of political intrigues, family murders and deceitful friends.Hamlet in Shakespeare’s text – a fairly normal person in quite a mad world.

Reply to Commentaries

The author examines the gendered Oedipal dynamics in Steven H. Cooper’s discussion and the notion of the “phallic collapse” in the context of recruiting a “third.” By comparison, the developmental thrust of Jody Messler Davies’s commentary is examined, specifically the idea of the various registers located in particular self-other configurations and the primacy of sensory experience in unlocking the impasse.

“I am a father now”: Colonial paternalism and oedipal typicality in Shaun Johnson’s The Native Commissioner

This article considers the prevalence and dynamics of colonial paternalism and oedipal typicality as they operate within Shaun Johnson’s novel, The Native Commissioner (2006). Therefore, the article explicates how Freud’s oedipal theory can, read within its historical context, contribute and serve as a tool to elucidate colonial discourses. It also indicates the prevalence of colonial paternalism, not merely through the South African Union government (1910–1961) and apartheid, but as I will argue, within post-apartheid South Africa. Johnson’s novel, which presents a father–son narrative, interfaces with colonial paternalism through the father, George Jameson, and his role as a Native Commissioner. Through an analysis of the ideological assumptions underlying George’s identity as a father (and associated notions of husbandry, gardening, and cultivation), the shared ideological basis of his career as a Native Commissioner and his seemingly neutral role as a patriarch is highlighted. The article then considers how oedipal dynamics structure the novel’s focus on paternalism. Through an analysis of George’s failure as a patriarch and the psychically invested nature of the narrative, we encounter the concomitant anxiety of the son-as-narrator. This anxiety manifests itself in the oedipal mechanics of castration anxiety, rivalry, and identification as originally explicated by Freud. Through these mechanics, the power of the son-as-narrator is emphasized as the father dies and the son identifies with the father’s power. The remainder of the article re-contextualizes these findings within the novel’s reception by South African audiences. The novel’s popularity suggests that colonial paternalism remains a discourse that still has significant purchase for white South Africans even amid calls to identities based on equality and multiculturalism.

Is three a crowd? A perspective on countertransference challenges in psychoanalytic couple psychotherapy

Two seemingly unrelated characteristics of psychoanalytic couple psychotherapy may be better understood when juxtaposed. First, countertransference in psychoanalytic couple psychotherapy holds particularly strong intensity. Second, format decisions are central to couple psychotherapy. The use of conjoint and concurrent formats, or variations thereof, has been key in the historical development of couple psychotherapy and remains an area of much debate. Some couple psychotherapists use the format of couple psychotherapy flexibly, using variations of conjoint or concurrent couple psychotherapy, while others adhere strictly to working conjointly. Decisions regarding whether to undertake concurrent or conjoint therapy are not generally linked to countertransference; this article demonstrates that reading decisions regarding format through consideration of countertransference offers a needed perspective for the therapist. Case studies published by psychoanalytic couple therapists are analysed through this prism to demonstrate that changing the format may serve to dilute countertransference. One particular manifestation of countertransference, linked to oedipal dynamics, is explored: countertransferential intensity for couple psychotherapists potentially relates to being faced with their internal parental couple and their unresolved Oedipal strivings. Possible unconscious motivations to change the format of couple psychotherapy need to be carefully considered, as format changes may mask an avoidance of bearing the countertransference.

The fraternal complex between psychoanalysis and myth A literary example: Strange Shores

The field of siblings relationship, initially considered in psychoanalysis mostly in its interaction with the oedipal dynamics, knows today important developments so that the has achieved its own independence. The paper aims to investigate the “fraternal complex” both in psychoanalytic area , from the Freudian perspective to contemporary authors, and in myth and literature. It is traced the birth and development of this concept showing how its different facets had been largely anticipated by the myth, especially Jewish myth. The second part of the article focuses on a literary example, “ Strange Shores by A. Indriðason, that offers many ideas to explore some of the dynamics of the fraternal complex in its intersection with fundamental issues in the field of psychoanalysis as the symbol, the double, the shadow, the guilt and the mourning.

The Centrality of Beating Fantasies and Wishes in the Analysis of a Three-Year-Old Girl

Freud's (1919) classic paper, “A Child Is Being Beaten,” with its introduction to masochism, offers an excellent example of how child psychoanalytic data can clarify his ideas, correct those where he went astray, and check whether ones that seem speculative are supported by developmental data. Toward these ends, the analysis of a three-year-old girl with prominent beating fantasies is presented. Her analytic material suggests that it is unimportant from a treatment or pathogenesis perspective to differentiate between different types of sadomasochistic content in such fantasies. That is, the phenomenological distinction between beating fantasies and beating wishes does not seem to have much practical utility. All such fantasies have the same essential structure and are compromise formations in which pain is sought to maintain the complex equilibrium provided by them. Her material also indicates that such phenomena do not require oedipal stage engagement or dynamics to develop, although they will, of course, be colored by this stage's issues as the child engages it. Even sexualization, the so-called hallmark of beating fantasies, can arise as a means to deal with various cumulative traumas and does not require access to the sexual stirrings of the oedipal stage to occur.

Where might I find you? Objects and internal space for the father

This article explores the relationship between objects and their role in the recovering of the (my) father. Its distinguishing features include use of lived experience gleaned from memory in combination with cultural and post-Kleinian theory in an exploration of the internal space constituted by oedipal dynamics and domestic space inscribed as ‘multiracial’. Its mode is free associative, mirroring the act of remembering. It offers a distinctive contribution to the psychosocial, diaspora and memory literatures in its attempt to chart the simultaneous expansion of internal space and shrinking of ‘racial’ space that made room for a complicated, yet uncertain, psychic recognition of my father.

Thoughts on Rigoletto

The author discusses the traditional interpretations of the principal dramatis personae in Verdi’s Rigoletto, suggesting that the opera expresses the composer’s unconscious but highly perceptive and intuitive exploration of: (i) paranoid and perverse father–daughter oedipal dynamics as enacted between Rigoletto and Gilda; (ii) a folie‐à‐deux sado‐masochistic relationship between Rigoletto and the Duke; (iii) the avoidance of conscious guilt and responsibility for Rigoletto’s part in the tragedy through the rejection of insight achieved via massive projection, an addiction to mania, and perversion. In this respect Rigoletto is compared with King Lear. Some technical aspects of Verdi’s compositional style employed to portray the contrasting characters of the protagonists are analysed. The paper also touches on Verdi’s own possible unconscious (as well as conscious) investment in this particular opera, noting similarities between Verdi’s portrait of the tragic, hunchback jester and his own self‐depiction. The author notes similarities and contrasts between his analysis of the opera and recent papers byHudson (1992),Tarnopolsky (1995)andBergstein (2003)on the same subject.

It’s All About ‘Me’: On the Group Leader’s Psychology

The therapist’s subjectivity—the complex of personality, character, feelings, thoughts, fantasies, many of which remain out of awareness—affect how we comport ourselves, how we relate to our groups, and how they relate to us. The dynamic factor involving the group leader’s psychology—the ‘me’—is always prominent and influential, and often apparent to group members, although not always articulated consciously or publicly. Using myself as a clinical example, I illustrate how unresolved Oedipal and sibling dynamics were involved in my perceptions, theory, and technique—perhaps in every micro-action and interaction that comprised a group experience.

Incest Avoidance: Oedipal and Preoedipal, Natural and Cultural

Why do most people experience a subjective aversion to the idea of incestuous sexual relations? To help answer this question, recent strands of thinking in both cultural and evolutionary anthropology are considered together with psychoanalytic theories regarding incest avoidance. Coevolutionary theories that propose ways to think about genetic and cultural inheritance as partially independent of each other, evolutionary arguments about the reproductive advantages of incest avoidance, structuralist theory arguing for a kind of incest aversion unrelated to any possible Darwinian selective advantage, and other trends in biosocial research into the origins of the incest avoidance are considered. Finally, a synthesis is proposed that seeks to expand our understanding of the oedipal and preoedipal dynamics of the aversion as these are conceptualized in psychoanalytic theory.

The research couple: a psychoanalytic perspective on dilemmas in the qualitative research interview

The relational, collaborative values of the qualitative research paradigm frequently require us to consider sharing the ongoing analysis of data with our research participants for comment and feedback. However, qualitative researchers may experience some tension between balancing participants' narrative accounts with their own analytic perspective and use of psychological theory. In using a psychoanalytic framework to explore this predicament, this paper adopts the notion of the ‘research couple', analogous to the psychotherapeutic ‘analytic couple', to consider possible oedipal dynamics within the qualitative research interview. The paper explores some of the emotional and ethical tensions in analysing and presenting research results and briefly discusses some implications for research training.

The snares of seduction in life and in therapy, or what do young girls (Spielrein) seek in their Aryan heroes (Jung), and vice versa? Part 1

The publication of the relationship between Sabina Spielrein and Carl Jung in 1980 gave rise to a veritable cottage industry of mythomania at the expense of historical truth. The fictions grafted upon the historical facts have conjured up a sensational aura of scandal and gossip about the protagonists. The arch fiction is that Spielrein and Jung had a sexual relationship during her analysis by Jung. At the very least, based on documents published by the author, this opinion can no longer be maintained beyond reasonable doubt. After 1905, Spielrein was no longer Jung's patient but continued as Jung's medical student, whereupon Jung sought her out as friend. In addition, it was Spielrein herself who fell passionately in love with Jung, and analysed this relationship as a case of mutual oedipal dynamics. The author further pursues the oedipal analysis of and links it to (1) love as reality and transference, (2) the reality of Jewish and Gentile relationships in Europe, and (3) mutual ethnic transferences between Spielrein and Jung. Jung, who was also passionately drawn to Spielrein, displaced his marital problems owing to a “Don Juan complex” to concocted problems in treatment, deceiving both himself and Freud out of the dread of social consequences.

Monstrous infants and vampyric mothers in Bram Stoker's Dracula

Bram Stoker's Dracula continues to fascinate and horrify audiences, inviting a psychoanalytic explanation. While previous interpretations have emphasized oedipal dynamics and perverse sexuality, this paper proposes that early developmental issues are central. Vampires and the state of being ‘undead’ are representations of intense oral needs, experienced in a context of passivity and helplessness. Aggressive invasion and possession of the other, with a colonization of body and soul, offer a solution to this dilemma but one devoid of true object‐relatedness. The imaginative source of the Dracula fi gure is posited as Stoker's early invalidism and his later idealization of a powerful and charismatic actor. Implicit in the Dracula story are ideas of intrusively experienced ‘monstrous’ babies and intrusively controlling ‘vampyric mothers’. The author offers studies of key passages from Dracula in support of this reading, followed by comparative material to illustrate the spectrum of vampyric mothering: a clinical example and excerpts from a modern novel. The horror of the vampire myth is located in the unending internal attachment to a deeply needed but problematic object.

“Love Supreme”: On Spiritual Experience and Change in Personality Structure

This article attempts to address the crucial question of how an experience of God might lead to changes in personality. Important concepts are drawn from psychoanalytic theory emphasising relational perspectives which have developed in recent decades. While somewhat under developed, there were relational aspects in Freud's thinking, both clinically in the transference and theoretically with oedipal dynamics and the formation of the superego. There is a brief mention of other psychoanalytic theorists and an outline of the work of Hans Loewald in regard to internalization of relationship patterns. There is an examination of some relevant results from infant observation and developmental research. And finally the article presents a view about how experiences of God are internalized in terms of relational patterns, adding structure to personality in a maturing and possibly healing way. This thesis is illustrated with a case drawn from the author's practice.

On Perseus

The story of Perseus and his exploits is one of the most famous Greek myths and is analyzed with emphasis on oedipal and symbiotic dynamics. The myth is seen to resonate with individual, social, and historical elements, illustrating the unique place of symbol and myth in mediating the coevolution of the individual and his or her culture.

Prozac on the Couch: Prescribing Gender in the Era of Wonder Drugs

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book Forum: Mood DisordersFull AccessProzac on the Couch: Prescribing Gender in the Era of Wonder DrugsSTEPHEN B. LEVINE, M.D., STEPHEN B. LEVINESearch for more papers by this author, M.D., Cleveland, OhioPublished Online:1 Nov 2004https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.161.11.2147AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail I want to be fair here. Despite its title, I don’t think this book was written with an audience of psychiatrists in mind. It derives from the psychiatrist-author’s Ph.D. thesis in feminist cultural studies. It displays his broad reading and his narrow language form, which is typical of this genre of theorists. I am not an expert in this area. When I read his declaration that 40% of people on Prozac have impotence as a side effect, however, I wondered how many of his other facts were wrong.Metzl describes the far-reaching paradigm shift in psychiatry from the predominance of psychoanalytic to biological assumptions. He argues that during the 1950s golden era of psychoanalysis in the United States, the predominant thinking about women and minorities was fundamentally wrong. The analysts’ ability to describe, but not relieve, suffering set the stage for the new assumptions that mental suffering is attributable solely to neurochemical difficulties. This, too, is in error, he says, because mental disorders are embedded in social, political, and historical forces.Metzl offers a “psychoanalysis” of meprobamate, diazepam, and fluoxetine. He synthesizes drug marketing efforts, declarations of psychiatric ideologues, psychiatrists writing for lay publications, and journalistic pieces about psychiatry. He finds that during the psychoanalytic era there were dramatic, recurrent representations of a female patient and a male psychiatrist. He asserts that each of the psychotropic wonder drugs in its own era promised to help women to find a life mate, become better lovers, or restore their maternal nurturance and thereby restore men to their rightful effectiveness in the family. He concludes that traditional patriarchal gender hierarchies have inconspicuously reappeared within biological psychiatry and that the new paradigm, ironically, is as antifeminist as the previous one.His analysis of advertisements, which is quite illuminating, is selective rather than quantitative or systematic. He gives no consideration to advertisements that promise to help men and finds parallels between Oedipal dynamics of individuals and society. He seems relatively unaware of the limitations of his ideas and methods. The audience for this book might be interested in an empirical study that found equal numbers of men and women represented in the psychiatric advertisements of 1981 and differing gender trends in 2001 for the American Journal of Psychiatry and the British Journal of Psychiatry(1).Prozac on the Couch never represents psychiatric thinking as richer than the gross oversimplifications of clinical reality that are inherent in psychoanalytic, biological, or gender-centric paradigms. Psychiatrists can be more sophisticated than Metzl perceives in this work (2). “Prescribing Gender” in the subtitle derives from his observation that in the meprobamate era the male doctor used to be represented as the therapy agent. Now there is no doctor in the advertisements, just the medication. Medication, therefore, has a male gender; it is phallic because modern advertisements still portray distressed young adult women. Get it?By Jonathan Michel Metzl. Durham, N.C., Duke University Press, 2003, 275 pp., $24.95.