Chapter 2, Something to be Scared Of Summary and Analysis

The traditional Freudian model of the Oedipal triangle is, in many ways, flawed. According to this model, all desire is modeled on the pattern of the nuclear family. There is the child who represents the person who desires. There is the mother who represents the object of desire. Finally, there is the father who represents the obstacle to that desire, which ultimately cannot be overcome. Freud, of course, did not think that Oedipus complex was a mere metaphor. Rather, he saw the Oedipus complex as a very real stage in childhood development which, due to how early it occurs in a child's life, produces a kind of mental archetype for all desire that comes after it. The model, however, is too simple. For one, it assumes that the mother really is...