The female Oedipus complex
Type de matériel :
23
The female Oedipus complex has long been poorly understood in psychoanalysis, unlike that described by Freud among boys. To a large extent, it focused on the primacy of the phallus. By combining the work of Freud and Klein and many other psychoanalysts, the author suggests that the pre-Oedipal phase described by Freud actually corresponds to the first stage of the Oedipal conflict. This phase is not only focused on the phallus, but on the mother’s body as the holder, from a phantasmatic point of view, of babies and penises in her breast (femininity complex). The original Oedipal fears of castration (pregenital) that generate an early and fierce superego, and therefore an intense guilt, are closely related to the total primary object (referring to the fantasies of the combined parents) when entering the depressive position. These will gradually be transposed in a progressive manner during the phallic stage and then the genital stage on a structuring third party that is clearly differentiated from the primary maternal figure. The Oedipal construction could be defined in three progressive stages structuring the depressive position: femininity complex (oral-anal stage); masculinity complex (phallic stage); and castration complex (described by Freud as marking the entrance to the genital stage), which would lead to the resolution of the Oedipus complex in both girls and boys. From these theoretical aspects, the author uses clinical vignettes to make the link between flaws in the elaboration of the depressive position and the pregenital Oedipal fixations of the libidinal organization of the ego that we find in a paradigmatic way in borderline organizations. The different stages of the constitution of the superego are also discussed in order to better define the pregenital Oedipus and the specificity of the archaic that is associated with it.
Réseaux sociaux