The Oedipus Complex Solutions or Resolutions?

• Main Author: Fear, Rhona M.
• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Routledge 2016; Taylor and Francis; Taylor & Francis Group
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Attachment behavior; Oedipus complex; Psychoanalysis; Young Man; Insecure Ambivalent Attachment; Actual Physical Relationship; Erotised Transference; Oedipus Complex; Unresolved Oedipal Conflict; Key Life Stage; Inverted Oedipus Complex; Part Typology; Paranoid Schizoid Phase; Oedipus Complex Theory; Unresolved Oedipus Complex; Secure Attachment Schema; Opposite Sex Parent; Attachment Schema; Insecure Avoidant Attachment; Male Genital Organ; Freud’s Oedipus Theory; Father Son Relationship; Prodigal Daughters; Mother’s Daughters; Insecure Disorganised Attachment; Internal Working Model; Incestuous Object; Mother’s Mental State
• ISBN: 9781782202950; 1782202951
• DOI: 10.4324/9780429482595

Freud's theory of the Oedipus complex is seminal to psychoanalytic theory, but often ignored because of failure to appreciate the nuances. This book seeks to demystify this fascinating topic by exploring the theory in approachable language. In the early pages of the book the author takes us through Freud's gradual development of his theory and then moves the reader towards a different view as expressed by Melanie Klein. At the end of the first part of the book the author seeks to promulgate the thesis that there is a causal correlation between attachment theory and the Oedipus complex. In the later pages of the book the author draws on her personal experience of twenty-five years in practice as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist to present a number of case studies of patients, all of whom have suffered from an unresolved Oedipus complex. Each of these individuals had found a different temporary 'solution' to make life bearable prior to presenting in therapy, where a more permanent resolution could be worked upon.