ABSTRACT
The author concerns herself with aspects of the female Oedipus complex which have no counterpart in the male, and which are the source of a specific form of feminine guilt inherent in a specific moment in woman's psychosexual development: the change of object. Freud has shown that the little girl's Oedipus complex, caused by penis envy, is a haven for her inasmuch as the girl, whose castration has already been effected, has nothing more to fear from the mother. The conflicts the little girl experiences in her relation with her father are, of course, linked to her first experiences with the maternal object as well as the peculiarities of the second object. A girl's guilt toward her father does not interfere merely with her sexual life but extends to her achievements in other fields if they take on an unconscious phallic significance.
