ABSTRACT
Psychoanalytic theories suffer from the defect that, in so far as they are clearly stated and comprehensible, their comprehensibility depends on the fact that the elements of which they are composed become invested with fixed value, as constants, through their association with the other elements in the theory. The elements in Freud’s theory of the Oedipus situation are combined by their association to form the narrative of the Oedipus myth, and so achieve a contextual meaning that gives them a constant value. The chapter discusses the observability of the chosen elements, although it might be thought, since the elements enter into the composition of all psychoanalytic theories and are essential, that the first need would be to see if these elements can be detected in the theories.
