SON AND FATHER: BEFORE AND BEYOND THE OEDIPUS COMPLEX
Peter Bios, Ph.D.
Free Press, New York, 1985
$27.95
186 page

Block, M.D., Daniel B.

Name not available

Rethinking the Oedipus Complex

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Rethinking the Oedipus ComplexSON AND FATH ER: BEFORE AND BEYO ND THE OEDI PUS COMPLEXPet er Bios, Ph.D.Fr ee Press, New York , 1985$27.95186 pagesDaniel B. Block, M.D.I just returned Pet er Bios' book, Son and Father: B efore and Beyond the OedipusComplex, to my resid en cy direct or and th anked him for pr ovidi ng me with suchexce lle n t a nd enjoyable reading materi al. But whe n I left his office, I becamegra d ua lly aware ofa sense ofloss which I realized was d irect ly re lated to rel inguishingth at book . At ti mes compelling, at others pu rely enjoyable, BIos, in his eloquent a ndsophist ica te d style develops a brilli antly re fres hing, original perspective of th eO edipus com plex . The read er of this review mi gh t guess by my enthus iasm th at thisbook moved me. But why, on e might as k, t he se nse of loss? My answe r is tha t readingthi s book transported me, tou ching off a chain of me mories that led me throughchildhoo d a nd back to th e pr esent , back to my own thi rt een mont h old son. It is anost algic se nse ofloss , sharpe ned by th e reality of re pe t ition-now I'm doing what myown fa t he r once did .. . .But back to th e book it self. Bios essen t ially divides it in to four distinct , butdefinitely intertwined sec t ions . In th e first sect ion, he expla ins his own ideas aboutth e father-son relationship, choosing to replace pre-Oedipal and O edi pal term inol-ogy with isogender (n egative) complex a nd a llogender (pos itive) com plex . He focus esintently upon th e dyadi c re la t ions hip between the male child a nd the father, a ndhighlights th e fa th er 's role as an a nchor agains t th e regr essive t ide of re-engu lfm entby th e symbiot ic mother. H e th en looks a new at t he triadi c rela t ionshi p of mother-fathe r-son . Perhaps mos t importan t is his em phas is on t he re-em ergence of th eisogender (negative) com plex during ad olescen ce-the dawn of adult sex ua lity . BIosunderscores th e importance of working through thi s com plex duri ng ado lescencethro ug h de-id eali zation of th e father on th e road to eme rgence of a maturehet erosexual identity. He also discusses th e va rious point s at wh ich problematicas pec ts within th e dynamics of these relationshi ps sow the seeds for conflict inadult hoo d.The next two section s have a common framework in th a t both pr esen t Bios 'lit erary criticism. He first discusses Fran z Kafka 's undelivered letter to his father- aletter in whi ch he bares his tormented , psychologicall y confuse d sou l. Thoughweighty a nd convolu te d a t times, Bios analyzes Kafka 's unresolved fa ther complex in43J EFFERSO N J O URNAL OF PSYCHIATRYlight of his earl ie r state d th eories. The next sec t ion add resses Sha kesp eare 's Ha ml et.BIos a nalyzes Hamlet 's inability to kill C la ud ius, his replace ment " fa ther," as hisstruggl e to avoid th e quicks and pull of th e re-engulfing sym biotic mother. In bot hsections, BIos makes exce lle n t use of qu ot ation s from th e ori gin al tex ts to em pha sizehis an alyses.The final sec t ion discusses th e developm ent of ge nder id ent ity and sex ualidentity from th e initial infantile bisexuality up to ado lescence, a nd the form ation ofmatu re het erosexuality. He highlights his points with rel evan t material from his ownclinical expe rience . H e a lso bri efly a tt em pts to ex pla in feminine psych ology, a nd thecon t rast ing path a young gi rl mu st take to reach ad ult hoo d com pa re d to boys. I' m notcer ta in why he found it necessa ry to include th at in this boo k, es pec ia lly a t th e end ofth e text ; it st ru ck me as a n afte r t ho ugh t. O verall , however, th is boo k is a must read fora ny psychi atrist int erest ed in more th an prescribing psych ot ro pic medi cat ion s. It 'squick reading, it 's well -written, and it add resses a topi c so rely in need of an updat e.

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Rethinking the Oedipus Complex

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