Œdipus and Beyond

The dawning and passing of the Œdipus experience, the migration of the oral libido and the onset of the infantile amnesia are clearly indicated in the dreams and behaviors herein recorded. They were all recorded by the parents of Paul, between the ages of three-and-a-half and five years.

I have had intimate associations with the family since Paul's birth and have closely studied his development. His father is a lay analyst, and his mother has been principal of a kindergarten, so that a good deal of expert knowledge was available for the observation and interpretation of Paul's behaviors. I should add, however, that the parents have wisely adopted no “theories” of child-upbringing and have in no sense imposed their specialist knowledge upon their son. They have been careful not to make him a guinea pig for their experimentation. It is safe to say, therefore, that the phenomena reported here have received no special conscious stimulation.

The parents have naturally taken a keen interest in Paul's dreams, which he has reported from the age of four onwards. But their apparent attention has been made studiously casual, and has been marked by a good deal of humor. Particularly careful were the parents to refrain from any precocious stimulation of intellectuality in their child, and they couched their comments upon his dreams (when addressed to him) in the symbolic language learned from the dream and the fairytale.

The first signs of the Œdipus development became manifest when the boy was three years and nine months old. The father had been absent on military duty and, upon his return was informed by his wife that Paul had been paying regular morning visits to her bed where he indulged in a half-hour or so of delightful whimsy. The father was informed that this was something he really should not miss. Accordingly, at an early hour next morning, he entered his wife's room in order to be present at the morning “courtship.”

Shortly afterwards the Small Person entered his mother's