Oedipus And The Couple

This title consists of a diverse series of contributions and reflections on couples and the Oedipus complex from leading psychotherapists and psychoanalysts in the couples field. All contributors base their theories on a contemporary Kleinian/object-relations psychoanalytic viewpoint and this helps the reader feel that there is a basic underlying unity to facilitate meaningful links between the ideas and themes in different chapters. The chapters have been organized into three sections. Whilst united in the focus on the Oedipus situation, the individual styles and voices of the authors are very varied. The first three chapters are primarily theoretical. The second section comprises chapters that make use of artistic and cultural themes from the worlds of literature and film to explore Oedipal couple issues. The final section consists of chapters that are specifically clinical in their focus. The manifest focus in most chapters is on the couple, but there are variations on this theme.

A collection of papers focusing on the Kleinian conception of the Oedipus complex, how this is now understood, and what effect it has had on clinical practice. The papers by the authors which form the greater part of The Oedipus Complex Today were originally given at the Melanie Klein Conference on the Oedipus Complex in September 1987 at University College, London. The conference, jointly organized by Professor J. Sandler of the Psychoanalysis Unit at University College and Mrs. Ruth Riesenberg-Malcolm on behalf of the Melanie Klein Trust, was considered such a successful statement of modern Kleinian views on the subject that the Trust has decided to present the papers in book form, together with an expanded version of the introduction by Dr Hanna Segal, and also a reprint of Melanie Klein's 1945 paper 'The Oedipus Complex in the Light of Early Anxieties'.The three papers, writes Dr Segal, 'are based on central concepts first put forward by Mrs Klein.

This book examines the contentious relationship between psychoanalysis and anthropology as it has played out in disputes surrounding the Oedipus complex. Here, Éric Smadja explores the complicated historical and epistemological conditions leading up to the emergence of the conflict between the two disciplines. He considers the origins of each science, the "creation" of the Oedipus complex, and the place, role and influence of Freud’s key and controversial work Totem and Taboo, both in the history of psychoanalysis and as it connects with anthropology internationally. Focusing on such key figures as Bronislaw Malinowski, Ernest Jones, Franz Boas, Georges Devereux, Emile Durkheim, Claude Levi-Strauss and Jacques Lacan, Smadja charts the course of the debate as it unfolded during the twentieth century and tracks its contemporary status of the debate, with a focus on figures in both France and the United States. Discussing the divergences and convergences between the two fields, he compares and contrasts their historical, epistemological and methodological features and reflects on the new "acculturative" disciplines emerging from their interaction. The book concludes with a look at what the conflictual history of these two human sciences can tell us about the history of ideas and their processes and modes of communication. Exploring a dispute which reaches back to the very beginnings of psychoanalysis and anthropology, The Oedipus Complex will appeal to psychoanalysts in practice and in training, psychotherapists and academics and students of psychoanalytic studies, anthropology and the history of ideas.

Couple and Family Psychoanalysis is an international journal sponsored by Tavistock Relationships, which aims to promote the theory and practice of working with couple and family relationships from a psychoanalytic perspective. It seeks to provide a forum for disseminating current ideas and research and for developing clinical practice. The annual subscription provides two issues a year. Articles - “How to Cure Family Disturbance”: Enid Balint and the Creation of Couple Psychoanalysis Twenty-first Enid Balint Memorial Lecture 2016 by Brett Kahr - Response to “How to Cure Family Disturbance”: Lily Pincus, Martin Buber, and Projective Identification by Viveka Nyberg - The Confinement of Compromise Formations: a Formable Aspect of Psychoanalytic Couple Therapy by Robert Waska - When the Couple is not Enough, or When the Couple is Too Much: Exploring the Meaning and Management of Open Relationships by Damian McCann - Echoes of the Serial Murder of the Psyche: A Psychoanalytic Approach to Serial Marriage by Hejan Epözdemir Clinical Narrative and Discussion

Couple and Family Psychoanalysis is an international journal sponsored by Tavistock Relationships, which aims to promote the theory and practice of working with couple and family relationships from a psychoanalytic perspective. It seeks to provide a forum for disseminating current ideas and research and for developing clinical practice. The annual subscription provides two issues a year. Articles - Aesthetics in psychoanalytic couple therapy by Barbara Bianchini and Franco Scabbiolo - The disintermediation of desire: from 3D(esire) to 2D(esire): Twenty-third Enid Balint Memorial Lecture by Alessandra Lemma - Response to “The disintermediation of desire: from 3D(esire) to 2D(esire)” by Alessandra Lemma by Catriona Wrottesleyn - Treating the seriously ill patient in psychoanalytic couple therapy: considerations and modifications of technique by Richard M. Zeitner - Response to “Treating the seriously ill patient in psychoanalytic couple therapy: considerations and modifications of technique” by Richard Zeitner by Damian McCann - Sex and the couple: tragedy or comedy? By David Hewison

At the outset of the play, Oedipus is the beloved ruler of the city of Thebes, whose citizens have been stricken by a plague. Consulting the Delphic oracle, Oedipus is told that the plague will cease only when the murderer of Queen Jocasta's first husband, King Laius, has been found and punished for his deed. Oedipus resolves to find Laius's killer. His investigation turns into an obsessive reconstruction of his own hidden past when he discovers that the old man he killed when he first approached Thebes as a youth was none other than Laius. At the end, Jocasta hangs herself in shame, and the guilt-stricken Oedipus blinds himself.

Couple and Family Psychoanalysis is an international journal sponsored by Tavistock Relationships, which aims to promote the theory and practice of working with couple and family relationships from a psychoanalytic perspective. It seeks to provide a forum for disseminating current ideas and research and for developing clinical practice. The annual subscription provides two issues a year.

Couple and Family Psychoanalysis is an international journal sponsored by Tavistock Relationships, which aims to promote the theory and practice of working with couple and family relationships from a psychoanalytic perspective. It seeks to provide a forum for disseminating current ideas and research and for developing clinical practice. The annual subscription provides two issues a year. Articles - “Somewhere (There’s a Place for Us)...”: A Cross-cultural Approach to Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy with Cross-cultural Couples by Perrine Moran - The Role of Interpretation in the Assessment Phase of Couple Psychoanalysis by Timothy Keogh and Cynthia Gregory-Roberts - Response to The Role of Interpretation in the Assessment Phase of Couple Psychoanalysis by Timothy Keogh and Cynthia Gregory-Roberts by Damian McCann - Response to The Role of Interpretation in the Assessment Phase of Couple Psychoanalysis by Timothy Keogh and Cynthia Gregory-Roberts by Alicia Leisse de Lustgarten - Does Oedipus Never Die? The Grandparental Couple Grapple with “Oedipus” by Catriona Wrottesley - Fear of Break-up, Fear of Breakdown: Why Some Can Come to Psychoanalysis Only as a Partner in a Couple by Klaus Wiedermann

Following the critically acclaimed Couples on the Couch, this volume offers further compelling ideas about couple psychotherapy from a psychoanalytic perspective. The book well represents the foundational basis of the Tavistock model and draws deeply from the work of Freud, Klein, Bion, Meltzer and the contemporary Kleinians, while expanding the theoretical model by featuring ideas about couple relationships written from a variety of psychoanalytic frameworks. These additional frameworks include Winnicottian Theory, Fairbairn’s Object Relations Theory, Link Theory, Self Psychology, Attachment Theory, Mentalization Theory, and Contemporary Relational Theory. This rich array of theoretical models, presented with exemplifying clinical material, results in a diverse assembly of papers that offer the reader an in-depth and complex view of a psychoanalytic approach to understanding and working with the dynamics of couple relationships. With clear clinical guidance, this book will be invaluable for all psychoanalysts and psychotherapists working with couples.