Article
The Oedipus Complex in the Light of Early Anxieties
In this 1945 paper in the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, Melanie Klein revises her account of the Oedipus complex in the light of the depressive position. She draws on material from two child analyses, of a boy she calls "Richard" and a girl she calls "Rita". In her account the early Oedipus situation is shaped by sadism and the fear of retaliation, and also by anxiety for the good object, by love and by the wish to make reparation. Klein then sets her view side by side with Freud's account of the Oedipal development of the boy and the girl, comparing the two point by point.
Main ideas
- Klein revises her account of the Oedipus complex in the light of the depressive position.
- The early Oedipus situation is shaped by anxiety for the good object, and by love and the wish to make reparation.
- Sadism and the fear of retaliation also shape the early Oedipus situation.
- The argument draws on clinical material from the analyses of a boy, "Richard", and a girl, "Rita".
- Klein compares her view point by point with Freud's account of the boy's and the girl's Oedipal development.
What it shows
- 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.