ABSTRACT
Sigmund Freud based his developmental theory about the role of the father in the sexual development of male children on another Greek myth, the tragedy of Oedipus, which led him to his hypotheses about infantile castration fears and incest wishes. The memory of trauma, like wounds that leave a scar, remains encapsulated in the psyche until some emotional trigger reveals its ongoing painful embeddedness in the depths of the mind. Diana Birkett, in her analysis of war, quotes Freud's perplexity about why "collective individuals should despise, hate and detest each other". Pat Barker's description of Dr River's original therapeutic efforts and findings in Regeneration demonstrated the havoc wreaked on soldiers exposed for lengthy periods to frontline fighting. But for Rivers there was an ethical dilemma: the purpose was to rehabilitate and return them to combat.
