Oedipal Experiences in Same-Sex Families

This book updates the Oedipus Complex for a contemporary audience in the light of social and cultural changes and explores its implications for psychoanalytic treatment and our understanding of queer families.

Growing evidence during the past few decades indicates that children who grow up in same-sex families adapt well. These findings, which do not conform to the predictions of Oedipal theory, expose the theory’s biases, and call for re-examination of its premises. This book based on ground-breaking research, pursues a methodical investigation of the characteristics of the same-sex family that defy the expectations of Oedipal theory. Furnished with vivid illustrations, it invites the reader to engage actively in the interpretive effort and presents a diverse and complex story about kinship, proffering a window onto a rich world of infantile phantasies and parents’ psychological conflicts, at the fascinating intersection of the personal and the social.

Oedipal Experiences in Same-Sex Families will appeal to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, educators, and policymakers, same-sex parents, and parents who were assisted by gamete donation.