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Mankind's Oedipal Destiny is a compilation of thirteen essays by well-known analysts on the subject of the oedipus complex, considered from various theoretical vantage points. The essays derive from papers originally presented as part of the International Psychoanalytic Symposium at Delphi, whose focus was the oedipus complex in modem psychoanalytic theory and practice.
The essays range from theoretical and clinical to applied psychoanalytic in their focus, and they capture much of contemporary debate about the relevance of the oedipal complex to current formulations of theory and treatment. For example, in “Sexuality in Nonneurotic Structures: Yesterday and Today,” André Green points out that while sexuality remains central to analytic conceptions of neurosis, when we discuss preoedipal conditions we tend to switch theoretical frameworks, abandoning Freudian drive theory in favor of theories that focus on ego functioning and object relations.
In his discussion of the Wolf Man, Freud implicitly connected regression to anal eroticism with a level of mental functioning that relies on splitting and disavowal, “primitive defenses” that typify preoedipal states and also the sexual perversions. Green proposes that in nonneurotic conditions genitality and genitalization mask pregenital fixations and, conversely, that oral and anal preoccupations can conceal genital fixations in the more disturbed patient.
Hanna Segal's essay discusses the place of the oedipal complex in Kleinian theory, emphasizing its early developmental appearance. The importance and acceptance of Kleinian thinking in our conceptualizations about the more disturbed patient are echoed in a number of other essays in this volume.
In his well-known essay integrating Freudian and Kleinian perspectives, Otto Kernberg discusses some aspects of object relations theory as related to the drives. This focus is taken up again in his work on the role of affects in the integration and development of self and object re