Dialogic Repression and the Oedipus Complex

Reinterpreting the Little Hans Case

Bibliographic Data

ID2390682
AuthorsM Billig (0000-0002-0874-6419, Loughborough University, corresponding author)
Year1998
Volume4
Issue1
Pages11-47
Publication date1998-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCulture & Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1354-067X • E-ISSN: 1461-7056
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1354067x9800400102
OpenAlexW1976659602
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited29

This paper offers a discursive reinterpretation of the psychoanalytic concept of repression. Language is both expressive and repressive, and, therefore, children, in acquiring language, learn to repress rhetorically. The sort of repressions which, according to classic Freudian theory, occur as a result of the Oedipus Complex are themselves dialogically and socially constituted. In consequence, the processes of repression can be examined by extending the techniques of discursive psychology. These ideas are examined in relation to Freud's case of Little Hans, paying attention to the ways that the adults are implicitly practising and teaching repression. It is argued that Freud, in his interpretations, repressed the themes of parental power and desire. The dialogic details show Hans to be developing within a social world in which dialogic repression is habitually practised by adults. The implications of such notions for developmental and discursive psychology are discussed

Aesthetics · Dialogic · Discourse analysis · Discursive psychology · Epistemology · Freudian slip · Linguistics · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Psychological repression · Reinterpretation · Sociology · Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics · Media, Communication, and Education · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Representations and Identity

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