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This book is a collection of 27 papers—21 previously published—which trace the historical origins and psychoanalytic applications of the Oedipus myth over nearly a century of psychoanalytic thought. It is the editors' view that "the interpretations included here have supplemented the central tenets of psychoanalysis by placing greater stress on unconscious communication, social environment, the age-specific conflicts and crises of adulthood, and the interpersonal and generational dialectic" (p. xviii). This is a succinct and accurate précis of a wide-ranging compilation offering considerable, often provocative grist for the analyst's mill.
The title is somewhat misleading: only a fraction of "the" papers on Oedipus is included; indeed, Pollock refers to a 1977 bibliography of 208 psychoanalytic reference books and articles on the Oedipus legend. Moreover, as might be expected in a book of this nature, there is much repetition and variation in quality among these articles. Such redundancy and variability prompt a suggestion that the main issues can be appreciated relatively concisely by concentrating on the most cogent chapters: the editors' introduction, which outlines the contents and the issues; the two papers by Ross on Laius and the "darker side of fatherhood," wherein he