title: The early oedipal situation: developmental, theoretical, and clinical implications.
abstract: The Oedipus complex is typically thought to begin in the phallic phase, when the child's relationship to the parents as a couple achieves central prominence. In contrast, the author views the appearance of oedipal conflicts in the phallic phase as the end point of a line of development of triangular relatedness that began in infancy. An aspect of the Kleinian view of the oedipal situation--that awareness of the parents as a couple begins in the preoedipal period--deserves serious consideration. A patient is presented for whom the working through of early oedipal issues in the transference-counter-transference permitted recovery from withdrawal into a fantasy world.
authors.affiliation: ljbrown@mediaone.net
authors.forename: Lawrence J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Brown
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009813:Oedipus Complex; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D011606:Psychosexual Development