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.
The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of Eternal Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to behold the hundred universes that each of them beholds, that each of them is.
Dr. Eitan-Persico's book has given us a vigorous, systematic examination of the various pillars of oedipal dynamics. As we follow her comprehensive inquiry, we are invited to look at one of the most foundational concepts in psychoanalysis with a new set of eyes. Her questions are threefold: (1) What role do the parents' sex and gender play in the establishment of oedipal experiences? (2) What is the relationship between biological affiliation and attachment? and (3) How do phantasies about one's origins shape intrapsychic and familial dynamics?
Qualitative research is presented in order to empirically inform foundations for existing psychoanalytic theorizing, to revise the oedipal dynamics that have been based on heterosexist assumptions, and to bring forth the multicolored richness of oedipal experiences to establish new theoretical frameworks. To interrogate the pillars of oedipal processes that are closely connected to gender, sex, sexuality, genetics, and kinship, the author invites us into the homes of 23 different Israeli families with same-sex parents. These families each have one or more children who were born by means of a donated egg or sperm. Two interviews were conducted with each of the families: one with the parents and one with their children, ages 4 to 6.
Besides detailing her conceptualization of these responses, Eitan-Persico delineates her analysis of the 33 children's answers to the two projective tests that were included as part of the children's interview: an apperception
test created for this research using two of the images of the Children's Apperception Test plus 13 new illustrations, as well as the draw-any-family version of the Ki