The authors discuss Freud’s concepts of the female Oedipus complex and penis envy and some of its proposed alternatives in the conceptual frame-work offered by Laplanche. The female Oedipal problems turn out to be the outcome of a projective identification with the Oedipus complexes of the moth-er and father. In the context of the rivalry with the mother, penis envy refers to the maternal power over the father’s penis that the daughter wants to have in herself, while, in the context of the rivalry with the father, penis envy arises from the jealousy of the father’s penis that the daughter believes is necessary to have on herself in order to satisfy her mother. The authors conclude that in Freud’s day such insights were already available which might have culminated in the conceptualisation they present here.