The oedipus complex. A critical re-examination

The Oedipus complex no longer holds the crucial role in psychodynamics attributed to it by Freud. Attempts to distinguish between oedipal and pre-oedipal disturbances are brought into question, and it is suggested that the complex reflects many non-psychosexual issues, particularly separation-individuation. Ten views of the Oedipus complex are critically reviewed.     

The Freudian construction of sexuality: the gay foundations of heterosexuality and straight homophobia

In developing his theory of male sexual preference, Freud asserted that heterosexual as well as homosexual preferences required explanation, that neither could be assumed to be innate. His theory of the oedipal complex, however, held that the heterosexual outcome was the "normal" resolution, while the homosexual outcome represented arrested sexual development. In the normal resolution the boy identifies as a male with the father, gives up the mother as a love object, and later substitutes another woman of his choice for the mother. The author of the following article, following the theorizing of Laplanche, claims that there is an unavoidable homosexual component or residue in the heterosexual resolution which is implicit in Freudian theory. In the resolution of the complex the boy has the choice of both parents as love objects or as persons with whom to identify. In the heterosexual resolution the boy identifies with the father as a rival for the mother's affection. But love and identification are not entirely discrete processes. The identification with the father involves love for the father. The heterosexual resolution of the oedipal conflict is bought at the price of the homosexual resolution which, however, is not completely surrendered. The homophobia of heterosexual males, the author asserts, is the result of the remnants of homosexuality in the heterosexual resolution of the oedipal conflict.     

The psychoanalytic treatment of narcissism.

This paper discusses the need for change in emphasis from metapsychological debate to a sharp clinical focus on the complex nature of narcissistic pathology. Narcissism is viewed as a dimension of psychopathology found at all levels of psychic functioning, at the core of which are characteristic ego and superego deficits around self-cohesion, self-continuity, and self-esteem regulation. It is argued that, if the definition of conflict is not viewed too narrowly, traditional Freudian or ego-psychological techniques are applicable and that the treatment of narcissism does not require a new theory, separate from that of object relations. Clinical material is presented to illustrate that all psychological phenomena are over-determined and contain aspects of unresolved preoedipal and oedipal conflicts. There are critical selfhood aspects at each stage of development which must be understood and interpreted, in addition to the traditional structural conflicts. It is stressed that highly developed skills in listening and in interpreting are required in order to discern the narcissistic and object-relations aspects of the clinical material and that the countertransference around the analyst's own narcissism needs particular attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patterns of inner experience: Daydreaming styles, depressive moods, and sex roles.

Used standard scales (in the original form or modified) to assess daydreaming styles, depression, and sex roles in 40 women and 23 men. Factor analyses indicated that 3 attitudes toward events characterize inner experience: Positive, Expressive, and Instrumental. Regression analyses showed that a unique pattern of inner experience is associated with each of the 2 types of depressive mood. These patterns are consistent with the 2 modes of emotional response and superego functioning—shame and guilt—that H. B. Lewis (1976) identified. Examination of sex differences and sex role differences in the data suggests that (a) psychological sex roles have more consistent relations to daydreaming styles and depressive experiences than does biological sex; (b) previous reports of sex differences in depression may be partly explained in terms of differences in distractability and sex roles; and (c) psychological sex roles have different meanings for women and men. (48 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is a gay Oedipus a Trojan horse? Commentary on Lewes's "A special Oedipal mechanism in the development of male homosexuality."

K. Lewes's (see record 1998-10061-002) article is seen as an effort to locate the psychopathology and desiring patterns of some gay men in a variant of the Oedipus complex. This commentary questions the value of the Oedipus complex as a theoretical tool in the psychoanalytic formulation of male same-sex eroticism both on clinical and political grounds. It argues that the embedded primary of evaluation and reproduction in the theory of the Oedipal complex inevitably devalues same-sex desire. Equally, it argues that the Oedipus complex's tendency to reinforce gender norms and stereotypes is especially distorting when applied to sample-sex desiring men, in that it may contribute to the analyst's clinical neglect of the role of gender conflict in pathogenesis. The author tries to show this through some examination of K. Lewes's (1998) clinical examples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The superego in observing ego functioning.

The work of Sterba and Strachey is drawn upon to formulate the observing ego in terms of its close relationship to the superego as a whole. The superego proper and ego ideal of both patient and analyst play major roles in development and maintenance of observing ego function, as do superego and ego ideal components implicit in psychoanalytic procedure, set-up, process, and attitude. The crucial juxtaposition of real object/analyst with archaic object/analyst produces an analytically engineered conflict, with observing ego function itself a resultant compromise formation. Conditions that may enhance or hinder observing ego capacity are examined with particular reference to superego functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The interaction of fraternal birth order and body size in male sexual orientation.

A late fraternal birth order has been demonstrated numerous times in homosexual men. Body size has been less studied with regard to the development of sexual orientation and has demonstrated contradictory results. In this research, the relations among fraternal birth order, body size, and sexual orientation were examined in a Canadian sample of homosexual and heterosexual men. An interaction between fraternal birth order and height was observed, with a homosexual orientation most likely to occur in men with a high number of older brothers and shorter stature. No significant interactive effects were observed for weight. The results suggest that the mechanism underlying the fraternal birth order phenomenon has an effect on physical development that lasts and is detectable into adulthood (i.e., adult stature). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Blade runner: An interpretation.

Reviews the film, Blade runner directed by Ridley Scott (1982). This movie was the forerunner of more recent film treatments of the relations between humans and androids such as A.I. Artificial intelligence (S. Spielberg, 2001) and Minority report (S. Spielberg, 2002). This juxtaposition is of particular interest to psychoanalysts because it stimulates thinking about what qualities are quintessentially human. By means of its rich symbolism and allusive cinematic vocabulary, the film explores such questions as the nature of the superego, the Oedipus complex, identity formation, and the eternal struggle between eros and thanatos. The author uses the material of the film to comment on some of the fundamental differences between Freud's worldview and that of the neo-Freudians. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Techniques of child therapy: Psychodynamic strategies.

Reviews the book, Techniques of child therapy: Psychodynamic strategies by Morton Chetkik (see record 2000-00388-000). Techniques of Child Therapy is not a manual of psychoanalytic theory applied to children but, as the subtitle indicates, it is a presentation to psychodynamic strategies for treating the impairment derived from the faulty development of any of four psychoanalytic constructs: phallic-oedipal, ego functioning, superego expansion, an affective difficulties. Four major sections compose the book: an introduction outlining the characteristics of the child and the general process of assessment, a section dedicated to guiding the parents, and the presentation of two case studies with an elaboration of the treatment process. Of the four sections, the ones devoted to treatment procedures may be the most illuminating to the readers new to psychodynamic theory. A laudable aspect of the book is its abundant and generous use of case studies. Each case is presented with an assessment, clinical material, and treatment techniques. The cases illustrate the assessed area and principles behind the treatment. But a significant challenge to the new therapist is explaining to a 6-year-old child the connection between, say aggressive behavior and oedipal wishes or fears. Parents who underwent psychoanalysis should be able to help. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reviews of Psychoanalyses/feminisms; That obscure subject of desire: Freud's female homosexual revisited; and Who's that girl? Who's that boy? Clinical practice meets postmodern gender theory.

Reviews the books, Psychoanalyses/feminisms by Peter L. Rudnytsky and Andrew M. Gordon (see record 1999-04403-000); That obscure subject of desire: Freud's female homosexual revisited by Ronnie C. Lesser and Erica Schoenberg (see record 1999-04164-000); and Who's that girl? Who's that boy? Clinical practice meets postmodern gender theory by Lynne Layton (1999). The three books reviewed herein are examples of these crosscurrents. The first, Psychoanalyses/Feminisms, comes out of literary studies, where feminism and psychoanalysis have found particularly fertile ground. Almost all the writers here are professors of English, and although without clinical experience or case material, their discussions of Freudian theory are knowledgeable and thought-provoking. Freud looked to literature for his insights, and he was himself a powerful story teller. All of these modern day theorists put his feet to the fire that he did not challenge sufficiently in his stories, the cultural biases and assumptions of the society in which he was immersed. The second book, That Obscure Subject of Desire: Freud's Female Homosexual Revisited, is a collection edited by Ronnie Lesser and Erica Schoenberg. Many of the contributors are gay and lesbian psychoanalysts. Established psychoanalysis has had difficulty in openly accepting homosexual psychoanalysts and in addressing fully their concerns about current psychoanalytic theory as it pertains to the treatment of persons with a homosexual orientation. The rage some of these writers feel toward established practice or toward Freud is evident; and hopefully, just as feminist rage helped to alter our psychoanalytic understanding of women, this will help to alter our understanding of homosexual development in our culture. The last book reviewed, Who's that girl? Who's that boy? Clinical practice meets postmodern gender theory, is by Lynne Layton and has aspects that are inspiring for their insights into a "postmodern" (to my mind, an unfortunate term) way of thinking about gender issues. The book—actually a collection of articles by Layton—deals both with analysis of aspects of modern culture as well as clinical material. What Layton wants most to show are the ways in which psychoanalysis has enshrined as "normal" in the very essence of its theories, from the Oedipus complex through concepts of masculinity and femininity to acceptable sexual practices, the tremendous biases of our culture. She wants to provide a bridge between deconstruction thinkers and psychoanalytic thinkers. These three books are compelling examples of the changes that are taking place so rapidly in contemporary psychoanalytic attempts to understand gender and sexuality within the matrix of our culture, and they are a testament to how psychoanalysis is vibrant, challenging, and very much alive today. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bedrock and beyond: an examination of the clinical utility of contemporary theories of female psychology

Libido theory and the idea of an innate matrix of bisexuality are an inadequate basis on which to understand female psychology. Rather, it is the mutual influence of sexuality, aggression, object relations, and a superego that inherits the object-related conflicts of early childhood, intertwined as these are with gender issues, that determine the way a woman experiences herself. A woman can have a basically confident, narcissistically valued sense of femaleness and at the same time be troubled by intense feelings of inadequacy and deprivation. Instead of arbitrarily attributing these feelings to penis envy and a sense of castration, based on the idea of bisexuality as bedrock, this paper suggests that we consider primary femininity as bedrock, but that the superego, as heir to unresolved preoedipal and oedipal object-related conflicts, functions to maintain these painful emotions. Clinical material illustrates the utility of these ideas.     

Two unconscious fantasies as mediators of successful psychotherapy.

Describes the role that the concept of the unconscious fantasy—an organized configuration of unconscious ideas and images—has played in psychoanalytic theory. A series of laboratory experiments that demonstrated under controlled "double blind" conditions how the activitation of 2 unconscious fantasies could serve an adaptation enhancing function are described. How they served the same function when they were inadvertently activated in various types of psychotherapy is also discussed. One of the fantasies—the "symbiotic gratification fantasy"—is cited as particularly apt to be activated in systematic desensitization, client-centered therapy, and meditation. The other—the "sanctioned oedipal gratification fantasy"—is cited as most apt to be activated in Masters and Johnson type sex therapy, touching and other body contact therapies, behavior assertiveness training, and encounter treatment. (66 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalytic perspectives on adoption and ambivalence.

Examines childhood adoption from a psychoanalytic perspective and suggests that particular elements of the psychopathology that is sometimes associated with adoption are simply special instances of some general phenomena that pertain to all parent–child relationships. Data are presented from history, mythology, and literature to show that all children and all parents, whether their relationships are adoptive or biological, must come to terms with warring feelings of love and hate toward one another. It is this ambivalence that lies at the center of the myth of Oedipus; although Freud chose to emphasize Oedipus's ambivalence toward his parents, the cycle began with Oedipus's parents. Parental ambivalence is an essential contributor to both the myth and the intrapsychic phenomena that are called oedipal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does the Oedipus complex exist?

Investigated the validity of the Oedipus complex and the reasonableness of believing that it is a viable hypothetical construct in the analysis of human psychopathology. The Oedipus complex is considered to be the nucleus of neurosis for Freud and many psychoanalysts. Examination of the nature and origins of the Oedipus complex presented by psychoanalysts and critics suggests that there is little evidence to support its existence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuropsychological performance on tests of frontal-lobe functioning and aggressive behavior in men.

Tested the relationship between frontal-lobe functioning and physical aggression in young men in a laboratory setting. 72 men completed two putative neuropsychological measures of frontal-lobe functioning—the Self-Ordered Pointing (SOP) Task and the Conditional Association Task (CAT)—and an abbreviated version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised (WAIS—R). Aggression was measured with a modified version of the Taylor reaction-time aggression paradigm, whereby electric shocks are received from and administered to a fictitious "opponent" during a competitive task within high- and low-provocation conditions. High and low provocation levels were defined by the intensity of shocks the Ss received. Results demonstrated that aggression was significantly related to performance on the CAT but not the SOP. The findings are discussed with regard to the hypothesized link between frontal-lobe functioning and aggressive behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexual transmission and the natural history of human herpesvirus 8 infection

BACKGROUND: Although human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) has been suspected to be the etiologic agent of Kaposi's sarcoma, little is known about its seroprevalence in the population, its modes of transmission, and its natural history. METHODS: The San Francisco Men's Health Study, begun in 1984, is a study of a population-based sample of men in an area with a high incidence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. We studied all 400 men infected at base line with HIV and a sample of 400 uninfected men. Base-line serum samples were assayed for antibodies to HHV-8 latency-associated nuclear antigen (anti-LANA). In addition to the seroprevalence and risk factors for anti-LANA seropositivity, we analyzed the time to the development of Kaposi's sarcoma. RESULTS: Anti-LANA antibodies were found in 223 of 593 men (37.6 percent) who reported any homosexual activity in the previous five years and in none of 195 exclusively heterosexual men. Anti-LANA seropositivity correlated with a history of sexually transmitted diseases and had a linear association with the number of male sexual-intercourse partners. Among the men who were infected with both HIV and HHV-8 at base line, the 10-year probability of Kaposi's sarcoma was 49.6 percent. Base-line anti-LANA seropositivity preceded and was independently associated with subsequent Kaposi's sarcoma, even after adjustment for CD4 cell counts and the number of homosexual partners. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of HHV-8 infection is high among homosexual men, correlates with the number of homosexual partners, and is temporally and independently associated with Kaposi's sarcoma. These observations are further evidence that HHV-8 has an etiologic role in Kaposi's sarcoma and is sexually transmitted among men.     

A modest confirmation of Freud's theory of a distinction between the superego of men and women.

Freud observed that a woman's superego is "never so inexorable, so impersonal, so independent of its emotional origins as we require it to be in men." In other words, the female superego is not as fully internalized as that of the male. 2 testable hypotheses were derived from this theory. It was hypothesized that in their dreams (a) women would be more often the victim of aggression and (b) men would more often suffer a misfortune. The data for the study were obtained from the content analysis of 3049 dreams. Both hypotheses were confirmed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluation of assertive training and homosexual guidance service groups designed to improve homosexual functioning.

Proposes that clinicians should develop research-based procedures for homosexuals that are designed to facilitate homosexual functioning. Assertive training is considered as such a procedure. 27 male, 17-45 yr old Ss were randomly assigned to a behaviorally oriented assertive training group or a nondirective group run by a homosexual guidance service. Pre- and postassessment on 4 self-report measures indicated improvement in both groups but no between-group differences. Behavioral measures did not show change. It is suggested that procedures to facilitate assertiveness and confidence in homosexual functioning can be effective and should be more widely explored. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Oedipal sibling triangles

Sibling triangles exist independent of parent-child triangles and undergo parallel development into constellations bearing significant formal and dynamic similarities to the standard parent-child oedipal relationships. They may exert definitive effects on the individual's identifications, adult object choices, and patterns of relating. Recognition of such constellations and their outcomes is often crucial to successful therapy. A developmental line is delineated with emphasis on the recapitulation throughout development of oedipal sibling issues. Speculations are offered about the possible factors responsible for pathological outcomes of oedipal sibling triangles, and about why, in many cases, oedipal sibling experience may be more influential in development than oedipal parental experience.     

Is Kaposi's-sarcoma-associated herpesvirus detectable in semen of HIV-infected homosexual men?

We explored a possible route of transmission of Kaposi's-sarcoma-associated herpes virus (KSHV) with nested and unnested PCR techniques. We looked for KSHV DNA sequences in semen of HIV-positive homosexual men and HIV-negative healthy semen donors. With unnested primers we found KSHV sequences in 21 of 33 (64%) homosexual men and in none of 30 healthy donors. With a nested PCR assay, 30 of 33 (91%) specimens from the homosexual men and 7 of 30 (23%) specimens from healthy donors had detectable KSHV sequences. Over 5 years of follow-up, 13 of 30 KSHV-positive homosexual men (43%) developed KS compared with none of the 3 KSHV-negative homosexual men.