ABSTRACT
A well-adjusted man has no reason to have feelings of rivalry towards his son just because that son is curious about his mother’s body and desires an innocent genital contact with her. The use of the term ‘well-adjusted’ in the above paragraph leads to an important concept in the Sexual Grounding model, which is that of the ‘ideal parent’. The reason that Willem Poppeliers refers to the Oedipal stage as ‘Revelation’ is that, for both boys and girls, their development as sexual beings is being revealed, not only to themselves, but also to their parents. The optimal response from both parents is something he calls ‘genital mirroring’. Children, at this stage of development, often spontaneously show off their genitals both to each other and particularly to their parents.
