Rethinking Oedipus or Not

ABSTRACT

Oedipal theory is rife with ghosts of gender and racial trauma. In this discussion of Nathans’ paper (this issue), I argue that the Oedipal landscape is stubbornly alive with history, meaning and atmosphere and it is not possible to render it free of its ghosts in order to repurpose it for LGBTQ inclusion. Ignoring differences between queer and heteronormative families, we continue to understate the complexity of queer living and see a sanitized notion of queer sexuality and family. Instead, I argue we can only disrupt Oedipal theory’s hegemonic reach when alternative narratives disrupt the shared symbolic register. When we expand and supplant traditional theorizing in our social unconscious, we are freer to imagine new ways of living and loving.

This article refers to:

Oedipus for Everyone: Revitalizing the Model for LGBTQ Couples and Single Parent Families

View responses to this article:

Further Thoughts on the Oedipal Lens: Reply to Commentaries

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Notes on contributors

Jade McGleughlin

Jade McGleughlin, LICSW, is Supervising and Personal Analyst, Supervisor, Faculty Member, and Past President of The Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis. She is on the editorial boards of Psychoanalytic Dialogues and Studies in Gender and Sexuality and publishes and speaks on the topics of the analyst’s non-sovereignty, work in the negative, queer theory and the uses of visual art to articulate problems of representation. She is in private practice in Cambridge, MA, and is a portrait painter.