ABSTRACT
Psychoanalysis has taken on the task of exploring and studying the manoeuvres which themselves constitute part of human development and the human condition. The separation of baby and placenta is the first wounding and puncture of omnipotence—a kind of fall from grace. Aristophanes’ account of the separation of the sexes, however, leaves out something very fundamental: the mother. Looking at Sigmund Freud’s theory we can say that Freud had two models of development—one male, one female. The male model was characterised by a violent dissolution of the Oedipus complex, and the creation of the super-ego and a rigid repression barrier. The female model was characterised by a weaker superego, a more fuzzy repression barrier, and by no definite dissolution of the Oedipus complex. The chapter suggests that the kinds of phantasies mixed with rage are present, although in a more unconscious fashion, in most men, and in women, and that they constitute part of the traumatic ending of the Oedipus complex.
