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This paper is designed to underline the rôle in shaping the Oedipus complex of the parents' interaction on one another at a critical period of the child's life. The similarities of the clinical picture presented by six women patients are related to a specific type of inter-parental relationship.
The mothers were unloving in early childhood, though they permitted a third person to be tender to the child. As their daughters grew older they manifested strong dependence needs. The fathers on the other hand lost interest as the girls grew older. They behaved in an alienating way, but were also, sporadically, harshly seductive. Both sets of parents used the daughters vicariously to express their hostility to each other without overt quarrels. The fathers deprecated the mothers' sexuality by their acknowledgement of the daughters'; the mothers encouraged the seductive exploitation of the fathers.
The patients were thus trained to feed on triadic involvement. In adult life they had to create triangular situations. Beneath an apparently strong sexual attachment to the father lay an unresolved longing for the mother which prevented genuine relationships with either sex. The overcompensatory attachment to the father made them despise their femininity. Their main devices for escaping their dilemma were pregnancy fantasies and childbearing. Most of them had occupations or activities which enabled them to minister to 'helpless' women.