Hans W. Loewald

University of New Haven

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Kurt Goldstein

Joint Institute for High Temperatures

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Joint Institute for High Temperatures

Goethe University Frankfurt

University Hospital Frankfurt

Academy of Arts

Ackerman Institute for the Family

City College of New York

City University of Seattle

UPMC Montefiore

Columbia University

New School

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The Waning of the Oedipus Complex: Introduction.

PubMed (2000)

Hans W. Loewald

Hans Loewald, a towering figure in American psychoanalysis, is often regarded as one of the first American ego psychologists who recognized the central importance of object relations. By the time he wrote this seminal paper in 1979, the “widening scope” movement in psychoanalysis was well launched. Many analysts had already reached the conclusion that conflict theory, compromise formation, and the Oedipus complex had limited explanatory value in treating the spectrum of patients appearing in analysts' consulting rooms with more severe psychopathology. Otto Kernberg and Roy Grinker introduced the concepts of “borderline personality organization” and the “borderline syndrome” in the 1960s. A decade later Heinz Kohut suggested that a new theoretical model was needed to understand the narcissistic personality so often seen in analytic practice. Indeed, in this contribution, Loewald acknowledges, “To a significant extent, psychoanalytic interest has shifted away from this nuclear conflict of the transference neuroses…in which oedipal conflicts are held not to be central, and to narcissistic aspects of classical and character neuroses” (p. 754). Coming from an influential ego psychologist, this statement helped others in mainstream American psychoanalysis to become more flexible in their clinical and theoretical approach to psychoanalytic work. Loewald's intent in this paper, however, was not simply to document the rise and fall in popularity of the Oedipus complex as an organizing construct in clinical psychoanalysis. He also was using the term waning to describe developmental moments of the life cycle where the triangular oedipal conflicts loosen their grip on the individual. Leowald states: “It is no exaggeration to say that the assumption of responsibility for one's own life and its conduct is in psychic reality tantamount to the murder of the parents, to the crime of parricide, and involves dealing with the guilt incurred thereby” (p. 757). This view complemented the traditional perspective that the Oedipus complex was ruled by an intense threat of retaliation by the powerful same-sex parent. Leowald turned this object-relational paradigm on its head by suggesting that the real damage, in the child's mind, is inflicted on the parents, not by the parents, at least in fantasy. Resolution of the Oedipus complex, then, involved the symbolic destruction of the parents as libidinal objects. In Leowald's focus on normal preoedipal experience as an important foundation for the oedipal conflicts that follow, he argued that a psychotic core is always active, even in neurotic patients. He related this core to the earliest vicissitudes of the ambivalent search for primary narcissistic unity and individuation. In this regard, not unlike Kohut, Leowald argued that the oedipal struggles had to be viewed as newer additions of earlier conflicts involving narcissistic strivings associated with the union–individuation dilemma. Loewald's classic paper, then, heralded a pressing need within classical psychoanalytic thinking to understand more fully what happened before and after the oedipal phase of development. Both the guilt-laden mourning process following the resolution of the Oedipus complex and the narcissistic struggles preceding it joined triangular oedipal conflict at center stage of the psychoanalytic theater. The ensuing 20 years have witnessed a further decline of the oedipal configuration as the centerpiece of psychoanalytic discourse as theoretical pluralism has become ascendant. Hence this classic article represents a pivotal point in American psychoanalysis where a rigid view of psychopathology began to wane and new vistas of understanding became accepted by mainstream psychoanalytic thinkers.

Oedipus complex

Object relations theory

Compromise

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Citations (4)

El psicoanálisis como arte y el carácter fantasmático de la situación analítica

Revista de psicoanálisis (2007)

Hans W. Loewald

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Citations (0)

The Essential Loewald: Collected Papers and Monographs

Hans W. Loewald

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Citations (111)

Instinct Theory, Object Relations, and Psychicstructure Formation

Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (1978)

Hans W. Loewald

Instinct

Object relations theory

10.1177/000306517802600302

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Citations (85)

Hypnoid State, Repression, Abreaction And Recollection

Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (1955)

Hans W. Loewald

10.1177/000306515500300202

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Citations (22)

Psychoanalytic Curricula—Principles and Structure

Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (1956)

Hans W. Loewald

10.1177/000306515600400107

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Citations (3)

[Psychoanalytic theory and psychoanalytic process].

PubMed (1972)

Hans W. Loewald

Loewald entfaltet einige Implikate der Freudschen Theorie, deren Existenz durch das szientistische Selbstmisverstandnis der Psychoanalyse verdeckt war. Im Anschlus an neuere psychoanalytische Theorien uber fruheste Stadien der Ontogenese unternimmt er eine Neuinterpretation der Lehren vom psychischen Apparat und der Objektbeziehung. An die Stelle statischer und solipsistischer Auffassungen setzt er eine Interaktionstheorie, deren Kern die Phanomene von Ubertragung und Widerstand sind. Die Psychoanalyse ruckt damit naher an rollentheoretisch orientierte Sozialisationstheorien heran, wie sie in der Mead-Schule entwickelt worden sind.

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Zur therapeutischen Wirkung der Psychoanalyse

PSYCHE (2017)

Hans W. Loewald

10.21706/ps-71-6-506

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Citations (5)

Regression: Some General Considerations

The Psychoanalytic Quarterly (1981)

Hans W. Loewald

Regression is a concept involving development as well as structural considerations. Clinically speaking, it refers both to psychopathology and to potentially therapeutic phases of the psychoanalytic process. Regression, a movement backward, reverts to more or less primitive stages of psychic organization which deviate from a norm, while at the same time these stages are enduringly active in the continual integration of psychic life. Regression and progression are necessary and complementary phases of this organizing activity. Certain theoretical and clinical aspects are discussed in some detail. The normative implications of regression, in the context of modern Western rationality as the standard of normal mental life, are briefly considered.

Psychic

10.1080/21674086.1981.11926941

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Citations (47)

The Experience of Time

The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child (1972)

Hans W. Loewald

(1972). The Experience of Time. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child: Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 401-410.

10.1080/00797308.1972.11822722

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Citations (127)