The Oedipus Complex

Ideas in Psychoanalysis is a series of essays which explain psychoanalytical concepts, their relevance to everyday life and their ability to illuminate the nature of human society and culture. For Freud, the Oedipus Complex was the immovable foundation stone on which the whole edifice of his ideas are based, 'the shibboleth that distinguishes the adherents of psychoanalysis from its opponents'. The story is famous; its interpretation unsettling and controversial. It has retained its power to shock and is today, albeit in an adapted form, a recurrent tool for therapy.