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.
Matricide is suggested as an important counterpart to the traditional oedipal manifestations of patricide. This paper turns to The Oresteia to examine its murderous protagonists and the meaning of the drive to eliminate mothers. A daughter may enact unconscious matricidal wishes in order to separate from an ambivalent tie to her mother, by excising femininity and femaleness in herself. The author explores early bisexual pulls that can emanate from primal scene identifications. The capacity to relinquish the option to have all options is brought in as a ubiquitous and painful developmental move away from having and being all sexes. Father's role as crucial in the sexual development of daughters, including Freud's role in relation to his daughter Anna, is considered and mourning is linked to Klein's Depressive Position. The author includes clinical material of two children from the literature and draws on interviews conducted with trans men to reflect on these struggles. The paper explores early awareness of the difference between the sexes and argues that this can fuel a protest for daughters, sometimes manifesting as a ‘no-mother’ or matricidal state of mind. If these wishes or phantasies remain unmourned, they can at times lead to a concrete flight from femininity.