The paper is an investigation of the disposition of libido and of the psychological mechanisms employed in the Sufi cult, so far as these can be inferred from an analysis of the legend of Merkez the Sufi.

The legend is a presentation of the Oedipus situation in which the child is punished by death after his incestuous wishes have been gratified. A powerful identification with the father is evident in the course of Merkez's life as well as in the legend. Similarly all Sufis are identified with their spiritual fathers and ultimately with the Prophet and with God. Phantasies of punishment for rivalry with the father are represented by the adversities through which Merkez passed, and by the asceticism and the paranoid character of the ecstatic Sufi cult.