Oedipal Dynamics Research Articles

Towards a Psychoanalytic Understanding of Fascism and Anti-Semitism: Perceptions from the 1940s

After selecting five representative European psychoanalytic thinkers, all of whom emigrated to the United States, this essay surveys their earliest perceptions and interpretations of the historical and psychological roots of Fascism, with particular emphasis on anti-Semitism. My samples almost all derive from the period before, during, and immediately after World War II. In examining the writings of Otto Fenichel, Ernst Simmel, Erik Homburger Erikson, Rudolf Loewenstein and Bruno Bettelheim, it discusses the various environmental and psychological dimensions of their understandings of racial prejudice. The paper argues that each thinker attempted to integrate historical, sociological, cultural and clinical factors into their psychodynamic formulations about the individual and group mind of the Fascist anti-Semite. This generation of psychoanalysts explained Fascist anti-Semitism by exploring the mechanisms of projection, the process of massive splitting mechanisms of the group mind, fantasies of delinquent adolescent aggrandizement in Hitler, sado-masochistic and perverse oedipal dynamics, and a macabre identification with the torturers on the part of Jewish inmates in the concentration camps, that obliterated the individual's sense of autonomy and capacity to respond morally. The paper points out the pronounced ambivalence of this generation of Jewish analysts and intellectuals toward their own Jewish backgrounds and sense of themselves as Jews. It also argues that this generation muted its left-wing and socialist political tendencies once they arrived in America, taking a turn against politics. It suggests that some of the features of this Jewish ambivalence can be seen in the exploration of a so-called "Jewish psychology," itself a disguised form of racism, a derivative of projection, which may have had rather negative and authoritarian consequences for the psychoanalytic movement in America.

Oedipus and the oedipal.

Psychoanalysts have assumed that Sophocles can be seen through the lens of Freud, and that the Oedipus complex is about the incest taboo, guilt, and aggression. However, an examination of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex (as well as other plays) suggests that these themes are only a part of the central dynamics of the play, perhaps not the most central part. This article describes discrepancies between what Freud sees of oedipal dynamics and the oedipal dynamics at work in Sophocles and suggests possible explanations. A central theme of my discussion is the shame and blindness of Oedipus.

Homosexuality: coming out of the confusion.

The author asserts that earlier theoretical assumptions contribute to the conceptual confusion about homosexuality in much contemporary psychoanalytic research. Bergeret's article, recently published in this Journal, is exemplary of this confusion. The author refutes his contention that homosexuality is not 'true' sexuality but merely a defensive, narcissistic fixation away from, or a nearly psychotic denial of, heterosexuality. He then clarifies specific areas of conceptual confusion regarding homosexuality still prevalent in psychoanalytic discourse that derive from earlier theoretical premises. These areas of confusion include manifest versus latent homosexuality, narcissism and bisexuality, oedipal dynamics and development, and transference and technique.

Oedipal and Sibling Dynamics in Organizations

In a context of rapid change, outbreaks of sibling rivalry in organizations act as a defence against the inability to mourn and feel remorse. When changes are imposed on work-teams, sibling preoccupations surface to prevent the working through of the breakdown of relations between the institutional parents and their dependants. Siblings also adopt envy-preventing strategies, engaging in collective self-idealization by forming sisterhoods or brotherhoods to protect themselves from disillusionment and individuation. Each succeeding generation has to face the fact that a primus inter pares will have to be chosen to inherit the mantle of power from the parental generation and restore the world to its `normal' state of inequality. In the context of recent structural changes in organizations the new managers have acted like borderline parents and fostered sibling rivalry. This dynamic has functioned to deny the guilt and the fear of retaliation associated with fratricide and matricide committed during the `re-engineering' process, when the youngsters sent their parents into early retirement. I want to explore the central importance of authority, disillusionment and mourning and show that the outbreak and suppression of sibling rivalry is connected with the problem of transition and succession in organizations.

Oedipal motives in adolescent chess players

Twenty‐six adolescent boys, regular participants of chess clubs, were compared to a matched control group of 26 non‐players. Two cards of the Blacky Test, four fable completion tasks, and three Thematic Apperception Test cards were administered, and indices were constructed to measure three aspects of oedipal dynamics. Chess players displayed significantly more jealousy regarding father's relationship with mother, and significantly more castration anxiety. No significant difference was found in expressions of father‐son aggression. A composite index also showed greater preoccupation with oedipal themes in chess players. The results are seen as supporting the psychoanalytic view that oedipal motives contribute to interest in chess.