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.
This book purports to give an account of the theory of the Oedipus Complex as discovered and developed by Freud, and of the most important modifications to his theory made by leading 'psychoanalysts' since his time. There are four admirably concise and comprehensive chapters setting out the stages by which Freud developed his libido theory and theory of the neuroses, with extensive quotations and references to the main translated works and papers. The theories of Adler, Jung, Rank, Horney, Fromm and Harry Stack Sullivan (of the William Alanson White Psychiatric Foundation, Washington), follow in separate chapters. Finally, the author attempts a critical survey of the seven theories, and the last 150 pages are devoted to a translation of Sophocles' Oedipus trilogy.
In the first part of the book there are passing references to Abraham, Hans Sachs and Ernest Jones among the classical analysts, and of the many singular omissions in a bibliography of seven pages, there is no reference to the work of Ferenczi, Anna Freud or Melanie Klein. This is therefore a book about Freud and those who have seceded from his theories, and if this were clearly stated there could be no objection to it. The title is misleading, as the Oedipus complex dwindles visibly en route till in the work of Dr. Sullivan it appears merely as a statement that the parent, feeling a sense of strangeness with the child of the opposite sex, tends to treat him with 'kid gloves', so that in this relative freedom from authoritarian pressure, the child feels greater affection in return.
There is, however, an underlying theme which is not without interest for the psycho-analyst. All six deviators from Freud's findings agree in abandoning the theory of instinct, 'the cumbersome libido theory', and in playing down the rôle of infantile sexuality, or completely eliminating it as a serious factor in psychological development. They are agreed also that the mother-child relationship is the operative factor in dev