title: The Kore complex: the myths and some unconscious fantasies.
abstract: Drawing on ancient legends involving the goddesses Demeter and Kore/Persephone, this study describes highly overdetermined unconscious fantasies associated with the acute anxieties and conflicts of separation-individuation. These fantasies, often aggressive in nature, involve condensation of generational and gender roles, and of oral and genital motifs. It is suggested that the pre-oedipal child of either sex experiences itself as a 'kore' (Greek for 'girl'), that is, as feminine in primary identification with the mother, and that the set of anxieties underlying these fantasies may therefore be called the Kore complex, a developmentally earlier counterpart of the Oedipus complex.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fairfield
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005201:Fantasy; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007207:Individuation; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009229:Mythology; D009769:Object Attachment; D009813:Oedipus Complex; D011573:Psychoanalytic Interpretation; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D011606:Psychosexual Development; D014473:Unconscious, Psychology