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Interest in sibling relationships within the psychoanalytic community has grown over the last decade and this collection of papers provides a good introduction to some of the current thinking. The book has contributions from a diverse group of sociologists, historians and clinicians which provides both a contextual as well as a clinical focus to the subject.
Prophecy Coles, in her helpful introduction, discusses why sibling relationships have largely been neglected in psychoanalytic thinking and comes to the conclusion, shared by other authors in the book, that it is the privileging of the Oedipus complex that is to blame. Challenging hierarchical versions of the therapeutic endeavour, Coles argues that a post-modernist perspective has allowed for a greater focus on the horizontal relationships of family life.
Leonore Davidoff opens the volume with a chapter entitled ‘the sibling relationship and sibling incest in historical context’ in which she attempts to give an anthropological perspective to the subject. The essay, although wide ranging, focuses largely on sibling relationships in the nineteenth century and in particular on the close attachment between William and Dorothy Wordsworth. Davidoff explores the subject of the incest taboo and indeed whether William and Dorothy were actual lovers or simply passionate friends. The chapter however, though interesting, is ultimately unsatisfying in its breadth. So much is left for the footnotes that the chapter feels like a series of unsubstantiated assertions rather than a well structured argument.
Estelle Roith's paper ‘Ishmael and Isaac: an enduring conflict’ takes as its theme sibling rivalry and its ongoing impact through religious hatred. She deftly retells for us the story of Abraham and the sacrifice to God of his son Isaac. Reminding us of the fact that Isaac had a brother Ishmael, she outlines for us the historical routes of Islam and Judaism pointing once again to our difficulties with the ‘other’ and how prefere