XII) in thedissolution or destruction oftheOedipuscomplex.
We are, however, emphasizing a different kind of paradox, especially in the destruction oftheOedipuscomplex.
We will also try to show how this situation is one ofthe ingredients ofthe destruction oftheOedipuscomplex and how it can be used in the understanding ofthe intrapsychic development ofthe neurotic conflict.
The transitional phenomena can be understood as one ofthe constituents that prepare a child for the “turning away” and thedissolutionoftheOedipuscomplex.
(1924). ThedissolutionoftheOedipuscomplex Standard Edition 19.
In this way theOedipuscomplex would go to its destruction from its lack of success, from the effects of its internal impossibility.
TheOedipuscomplex offered the child two possibilities of satisfaction, an active and a passive one.
In this conflict the first of these forces normally triumphs: the child's ego turns away from theOedipuscomplex.
These connections justify the statement that the destruction oftheOedipuscomplex is brought about by the threat of castration.
The girl's Oedipuscomplex is much simpler than that ofthe small bearer ofthe penis; in my experience, it seldom goes beyond the taking of her mother's place and the adopting of a feminine attitude towards her father.
Extant research suggests that the timeline for the emergence of these cognitive and inferential processes does not parallel the Freudian timeline for the onset of castration anxiety and thedissolutionoftheOedipuscomplex.
The Role of Attachment Processes
The above suggests that families may play an important role in the development oftheOedipuscomplex, the onset of castration anxiety, and thedissolutionoftheOedipuscomplex.
The topic ofthe fate oftheOedipuscomplex speaks to the essential issue ofthe continuity vs. the discontinuity of human development.
“TheDissolutionoftheOedipusComplex”—Freud
In the “DissolutionoftheOedipusComplex,” Freud paves the way from theOedipusComplex to latency.
Thus, Freud described the process ofthedissolutionoftheOedipuscomplex, especially for the boy, as “more than a repression.”
The fate oftheOedipuscomplex and gender will be the subject of another paper.
By altering Freud's idea ofthe “dissolutionoftheOedipuscomplex” to the “waning oftheOedipuscomplex,” he tells us that he is referring to two different issues.
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Repression and identification are two ofthe crucial psychological strategies that pave the way for thedissolutionoftheoedipuscomplex.
The mental work involved in bringing about this new cognitive world view has received insufficient attention even though it bears a striking resemblance in some crucial ways to the ego psychological tasks involved in thedissolutionoftheoedipuscomplex and the promotion and maintenance ofthe state of latency.
In 1924 Freud wrote: "To an ever-increasing extent theOedipuscomplex reveals its importance as the central phenomenon ofthe sexual period of early childhood.
The consensus of opinion since Freud's time would suggest that thedissolution or demolition oftheoedipuscomplex is not as absolute as Freud suggested.
This is intentional, since only one issue will be addressed in this paper: the role of a particular cognitive factor in thedissolutionoftheoedipuscomplex and in the "maintenance" ofthe state of latency.