This short essay was first published in German in the Internationale Zeitung für Psychoanalyze 10:3 (1924), 245-52. It was first translated into English by Joan Riviere as “The Passing of the Oedipus Complex” in the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 5:4 (1924), 419-24, but in the Standard Edition it was entitled “The Dissolution of the Oedipus Complex” and it is by that name that it is usually known.
The essay is significant for its clarification of Freud's thinking on the different relationship of males and females to the Oedipus complex and on how and why they decide to abandon the complex at the time of coming to terms with an adult identity. As Ernest Jones notes in the Standard Edition (XIX,…
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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Der Untergang des Oedipuskomplexes". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 November 2009 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=28507, accessed 23 November 2024.]