Oedipus and the Oedipus Complex

Dietmar Seel is a practising psychoanalyst in Saarbrucken (Germany), and former scientific assistant at the Institute of Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine of the University Clinics of the Saarland. He is also a member of the Saarland Institute for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy and of the DGPT. Burkhard Ullrich is a practising psychoanalyst in Neunkirchen (Germany), and former scientific assistant at the Institute of Clinical Psychology of the University of the Saarland (Germany), as well as at the Research Institute for Psychotherapy in Stuttgart (Germany) and at the Institute of Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine of the University of the Saarland. He is a member of the Saarland Institute of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy and of the DGPT. Florian Daniel Zepf, MD, is the Chair and Winthrop Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Western Australia in Perth, and Clinical Director/Head of Department of the Specialised Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Western Australia. He is the author of numerous publications in the field of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. Siegfried Zepf, MD, is a Training analyst (DPG, DGPT) and the former director of the Institute of Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine, University of Saarland (Germany). He is the author of numerous publications on epistemological, psychosomatic, socio-psychological, and psychoanalytical topics.

'This is a thoroughly researched work that beautifully weaves together numerous psychoanalytic contributions on Freud's Oedipus complex in relation to differing versions of the Oedipus myth in Greek mythology as well as incestuous myths from other cultures. The authors' line of argument provides the reader with both a nuanced appreciation of this cornerstone of psychoanalytic theory, and an enlightening emendation.'-Alan Barnett, PhD, past Editor, The Psychoanalytic Review'This book proposes a thoroughly documented discussion of the main mythological, historical and clinical aspects of the Oedipus complex, its role in Freud's thought, its argumentative, theoretical and practical consistency and its use in today's psychoanalysis. The discussion ushers in a thought-provoking change of perspective that opens up a new interpretation of the Complex's repressed underpinnings. A must-read for any future research on the Oedipus topic in psychoanalysis.'- Thierry Simonelli, PhD, former President of the Societe Psychanalytique du Luxembourg, and author of Lacan. La theorie. Essai de critique interieure

• Introduction , Two questions , The abandonment of the seduction theory—reasons , The invention of the Oedipus complex , The myth of the primal horde , The myth of the dissolution of the Oedipus complex , Oedipus myths , Freud's blind spot , Oedipus myths and the Oedipus complex , The heterosexual and homosexual processing of the oedipal drama , Unconscious oedipal messages and answers , Oedipus Tyrannus—a cover story , Oedipus at Colonus—the lost blindness