ABSTRACT
Marcel Proust provides a different explanation of the Oedipus myth. He shows the importance of the matricide that, for him, replaces the patricide of Sigmund Freud. Of all the mammals, the human child are by far the most aggressive, which undoubtedly is closely connected to Proust prolonged dependence on parents and educators. For Proust’s narrator it is a matter of subtle fear combined with a perverted form of love that creates an archaic rage, which can be expressed only indirectly. This results from a lack of a sense of security because his mother does not love him unconditionally. When the father is absent in the mother’s conceptual universe and, as a result, also in that of the child—and this can also occur when the father is physically present—pathology lies ahead. Freud’s preoccupation with fathers is probably connected to the equilibrium in the family from which he came.
