The cause is worse

This paper will help bring Jocasta, a fi gure relatively neglected by psychoanalytic theory, whose lens upon her son has left her to the side, into greater focus. It is not that Jocasta is completely ignored but rather that, when studied, she appears as the dangerous, castrating, forbidden woman to be placated or avoided at all costs. So, although she stands at center stage as the fulcrum of Oedipus's destruction, it is never as a mother longing for her son. The author contends that Jocasta is the personifi cation of an ongoing developmental need on the part of all mothers to separate from their children coupled with a universal longing for reunion. As with Oedipus, Jocasta—a character in a play—is an example of the perverse outcome of forbidden gratifi cations; but also, as with Oedipus, she is the fi gurative presentation of normal variations on a theme

Character (mathematics · Epistemology · Focus (optics · Oedipus complex · Perversion · Physics · Presentation (obstetrics · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Theme (computing · Computer Science · Homicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Surgery · Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy

• The Lethic Phallus

  Open Access•Cordelia Schmidt-Hellerau, Cordelia Schmidt‐Hellerau•The Psychoanalytic Quarterly•2008

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• Oedipus Rex

  Open Access•Rosemary H Balsam•The Psychoanalytic Quarterly•2015

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• On Supervising the Pregnant Psychoanalytic Candidate

  Open Access•Marianne Goldberger, Robert D Gillman et al.•The Psychoanalytic Quarterly•2003

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• The Oedipus Complex

  Open Access•Arnold H Modell, Michael H Sacks•Journal of the American…•1985

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