The missing link: parental sexuality in the Oedipus complex

For Freud the Oedipus complex was the nuclear complex from its discovery in 1897 to the end of his life (Freud 1897, 1924d). It remained central in the development of the individual for Melanie Klein. She adopted the term ‘Oedipal situation’ and included in it what Freud had referred to as the primal scene, i.e. the sexual relations of the parents both as perceived and as imagined (Klein 1928).