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The oedipus complex occupies a central place within psychoanalytic understanding of neurotic disorders. A book such as this one, on the Oedipus myth around the world, has to be of interest, therefore, to the psychoanalytic community.
It is the fourth in a series of folklore casebooks being compiled under the general editorship of Alan Dundes, a dedicated folklorist. The aim is to pull together significant interdisciplinary essays which have appeared in so many different books and periodicals and in so many different languages that they have not been readily available for comparison with one another. The book consists of nineteen articles on the Oedipus myth written by folklorists, anthropologists, psychoanalysts, classicists, and cultural linguists. Some originally were to be found only in obscure locations, and some until now were available only in French, German, Italian, Greek, or Russian. Among the familiar authors are Sigmund Freud, George Devereux, James G. Frazer, Géza Róheim, and Melford E. Spiro. The net result is an interesting collection of articles that are thought-provoking but contain some internal contradictions and some highly questionable views and ideas.
One theme involves a note of caution about assuming universality of the Oedipus motif in folktales, stories, and legends throughout the world. Another warns against concluding that where it does appear, it derives only from a personal, individual unconscious source. William A. Lessa, an anthropologist, asserts that Oedipus-type tales are "limited to a continuous belt extending from Europe to the Near and Middle East and Southeastern Asia, and from there into the islands of the Pacific. It seems to be absent from such vast areas as Africa, China, Central Asia, Northeastern Asia, North America, South America, and Australia" (p. 67). This can hardly be accurate, however, since in this same volume, stories with Oedipus or Oedipus-like themes are reported from Uganda (A. W. Southall), the !Kung