Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book considers that the Oedipus complex starts in the first year of life and is fundamentally affected by the child’s relation to the breast. It describes in Richard how an early splitting of the breast affects his Oedipus complex. The book discusses a particular kind of splitting, which calls ‘fracturing’ the parental couple, which attacks its heterosexual procreative qualities. It shows that the way the patient’s phantasy concerning the nature of the parental relationship not only affects the quality of his object relations and the nature of his anxieties and defences but has a profound effect on his thinking. The book also shows how the way the parental couple come together in these phantasies, especially whether this is lively and pleasurable or destructive.