You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
I have stressed a somewhat neglected view of the Oedipus myth as exemplified in Sophocles' plays: the preoedipal relationship to the mother, or, to put it better, to the primal parent. This stress is not intended to minimize the oedipal connotations of the Sophoclean dramas which, like all art on the very highest level (Shakespeare, Dostoevski), are an encyclopedia of creative psychological insight. Using Jocasta-Sphinx as the imago of the bad primal parent, I have compared aspects of the character of the son-husband Oedipus to those of children seduced by psychotic mothers. Much more is to be said on the effects of incestuous violation of children than has been brought out by the parallel that is the thesis of this paper. However, I feel the comparison is valuable because the myth brings clarity to the clinical data.
Following Freud's parallel of the unfolding drama of Oedipus Rex to the course of an analysis, one can better understand the therapeutic effects of a psychoanalysis on the patients studied. They achieved: (1) The eventual, albeit terrible, ability to see,