Introduction

The Oedipus complex, in which a leading group of Kleinian psychoanalysts show how the concept of the Oedipus complex is still at the vital core of analytic work. In the myth of Oedipus we are confronted with a number of couples. First, there is the couple of Laius and Jocasta, the king and queen of Thebes. The Oedipus myth evokes in detail how appalling the dilemma of going from two to three can appear; how some couples feel inescapably driven towards drastic measures, including the enormous temptation to try violently to turn the clock of development backwards, and yet how impossible in psychic reality it is for their attempt to be successful. The culmination of the myth famously concerns the tragic adult couple of Oedipus and Jocasta. They believe themselves to be happily married, and indeed produce children apparently without too much emotional turbulence.