Narcissus and Oedipus : the children of psychoanalysis

Part 1 - Narcissus. The myth of Narcissus. Preface: some theoretical views. 1 Primary narcissism and primary fusion/union. 2 Primary internal object-relationships. 3 Primary object-love and primary affectional bonds. 4 Interactional synchrony and mutuality. 5 Narcissus: an 'average' history. 6 Narcissus and Echo. Transition. 7 The concept of transitional schemas. 8 The 'fate' of the transitional object. 9 The watching agency and its products. Part 2 - Oedipus. 10 The Theban legend: Oedipus the King. 11 The riddle of life. 12 Knowledge and the tragic vision. 13 'A holy curiosity'. 14 The limits of knowledge and the castration complex. Epilogue

'...This new study of child development returns to the original myths, as well as drawing on the theory and practice of ethology and communication theory, in order to expand the discipline of psychoanalysis created by Freud nearly a century ago. Victoria Hamilton suggests that the myths of Narcissus and Oedipus are tragedies and, as such, may be interpreted in the light of pathological, rather than normal, development. In place of primary narcissism, she depicts from the story of Narcissus and Echo a painfully fused two-person relationship in which differentiation leads to death. The Oedipus myth is viewed less as a tale about illicit sexual wishes than as a tragic account of a young person's search for knowledge about his origins which fails because of deception....'

Hardcover