Thinking Forbidden Thoughts: The Oedipus Complex as a Complex of Knowing

The Oedipus complex, considered by Freud the "nuclear complex of development," played a central role in the evolution of psychoanalytic thought. This paper returns to the point of transition from the seduction theory, Freud's initial theorem, to the oedipal model, and suggests that the Oedipus complex is first and foremost a text and as such contains a multiplicity of narratives. In particular, the author articulates the close relation between the Oedipus complex and the subject of knowing, postulating that underlying its surface level, the deep-level structure of this complex is one of knowing. As a complex of knowing it is of dual quality, both promoting and impeding the ability to know.