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The different elements of the Oedipus triangle are studied, background literature presented, and the Greek myth explored. The author points out that the word 'oedipus' has a repressed etymological origin in the word 'oedipiis', which
means the zone of the swollen sea. He studies the elements of the complex as they pertain to the mother, father, and child, further elaborating his ideas expressed in a recent book, The New Birth of Oedipus.
The mother is seen as preventing the birth of the child and as the one who eats him. To keep the foetus gratifies conscious and unconscious wishes in the woman, such as becoming like a god, creating life, gratifying exhibitionistic tendencies, feeling important in the eyes of others, and acquiring a penis—in other words, the bad mother. Stressed is the fact that in the myth a man is infertile in the sense that he cannot deliver his own child. The child is already born with a sense of urgency and at the same time guilt feelings because to be separated from the mother literally means to tear the mother and to take part of her life. In future psychological development, this leads to the superego structure which would limit and envelop the child as the mother did before his birth. Three basic anxieties result: the anxiety of captivity, the anxiety of going crazy if too much freedom is allowed, and the anxiety regarding any change, which means death. The guilt for being born, resulting from the sin committed against the mother, will in a certain way condition the regression toward the mother, although only partially, in an attempt to undo the damage and to repair the mother. This undoing and repairing is symbolized by the fantasies of incest. The author feels that the same is true of death which is experienced as the inescapable punishment for having been born.