ABSTRACT
The author takes a fresh look at the Oedipus story for insights into adult sexual relationships. She begins with the boy’s story. She considers the effect that men’s ambivalent feelings about their mothers may have on their sexual relationships. She questions Freud’s emphasis on the boy’s murderous rivalry with his father, and asks if a bigger problem may be the father’s and rivalry with his son. She tells the story of Jeremy’s suffering as a result of his father’s humiliating attacks when he was a child and his subsequent struggle with self-esteem and sexual confidence. She moves on to ask, what if Oedipus were a girl? She considers the rivalry between mothers and daughters. She discusses how some adolescent girls’ sexual awakening can trigger disturbing thoughts about their fathers. She tells the story of Connie and the impact on her of her father’s inappropriate flirtatious behaviour and her mother’s passive-aggressive envious attacks. She discusses the importance of making a distinction between some adolescent girls’ Oedipal fantasies about their fathers and traumatic memories of incestuous sexual abuse.
