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Dear Sirs,
Since I have a particular interest in the characteristics of the Oedipus complex and its time and place in child development, I was much intrigued by Ogden's superb paper (2006), which delineated and discussed Loewald's reconception of the complex, including novel features differing from what was bequeathed to us by Freud. Reading it has stimulated me to submit views of my own in an endeavor to constructively supplement Loewald's formulation that Ogden refers to as ‘a watershed in the development of psychoanalytic thought’ (p. 651).
While not directly acknowledged by Loewald (nor, for that matter, Ogden) I believe a close reading of ‘The waning of the Oedipus complex’ (1979), in his intricately associating the Oedipus complex with the phases of separation-individuation of the first years of life and its ultimate resolution with the emancipation from psychic fusion with a parent(s) to relative autonomy, discloses by implication its origin and representation in early life, preceding the time designated for the Oedipus complex proper. Loewald points directly to the early origins of his conception when he states ‘…the oedipal attachments, struggles and conflicts must also be understood as new versions of the basic union-individuation dilemma’ (p. 775). And also when he says:
In the process of becoming and being an adult, significant emotional ties with parents are severed. They are not simply renounced by force of circumstances, castration threats, etc.—although these play an important instrumental role—but they are also actively rejected, fought against, and destroyed to varying degrees. …Be that as it may, in the course of what we consider healthy development, this active urge for emancipation comes to the fore (already in early phases of the separation-individuation process). (p. 756-7)
Therefore, according to Loewald, insofar as the Oedipus complex manifests itself ‘already in early phases of the separation-individuation process,’ this indicates that it actua