ABSTRACT
The Oedipus complex', has become of such great importance in the psycho-analytic explanation of the neuroses, and which has perhaps equally important share in causing the opposition against psychoanalysis. Mythology will show you that incest, ostensibly so much abhorred by men, is permitted to their gods without a thought; and from ancient history you may learn that incestuous marriage with a sister was prescribed as a sacred duty for kings it was therefore in the nature of a privilege denied to the common herd. Incest with the mother is one of the crimes of Oedipus and parricide the other. Incidentally, these are the two great offences condemned by totemism, the first social-religious institution of mankind. The clinical fact which confronts us behind the form of the Oedipus complex as established by analysis now becomes of the greatest practical importance. The infantile object-choice was but a feeble venture in play, but it laid down the direction for the object-choice of puberty.
