Article
Early Stages of the Oedipus Conflict
Paper read by Melanie Klein at the Innsbruck Congress of 1927 and published in 1928, in English and in German as "Frühstadien des Ödipuskonfliktes". Drawing on her analyses of young children, Klein moves the beginnings of the Oedipus conflict and of the super-ego back to the frustrations of weaning towards the end of the first year, a period she sees as dominated by oral and anal sadism. She describes a "femininity phase" through which children of both sexes pass, and an epistemophilic impulse directed at the inside of the mother's body. On her account anxiety and guilt already arise at this early stage, well before the period Freud had assigned to the Oedipus complex.
Main ideas
- The Oedipus conflict begins with the frustrations of weaning, towards the end of the first year of life.
- The super-ego forms at the same early stage, under the dominance of oral and anal sadism.
- Children of both sexes pass through a "femininity phase".
- The epistemophilic impulse is first aimed at the mother's body.
- Anxiety and guilt already arise in this early stage.
What it shows
- 1928
Melanie Klein developed Epistemophilic instinct
Klein takes up Freud's instinct for knowledge and ties it to the early Oedipus conflict and to sadistic phantasies about the inside of the mother's body (1928). In 1931 she traces intellectual inhibition to the anxiety this bond creates.
- 1928
Melanie Klein reworked Oedipus complex
Klein dates the onset of the Oedipus conflict to the latter part of the first year, set off by the frustration of weaning and coloured by oral and anal sadism (1928). In 1945 she ties it to the depressive position, the wish to make reparation and the internalised good parents.
- 1928
Melanie Klein reworked Super-ego
Against Freud's view that the super-ego is the heir of the Oedipus complex, Klein finds an early and harsh super-ego in the first years of life. It is built from the introjected objects that the child's own sadism makes frightening. The Psycho-Analysis of Children (1932) sets out this view at length.