Klein's Archaic Oedipus Complex and Its Possible Relationship to the Myth of the Labyrinth: Notes on the Origin of Courage

The ancient Greek myth linking the images of the labyrinth and the Minotaur provides an allegory for Melanie Klein's conception of the archaic Oedipus complex as well as a vivid illustration of Winnicott's notions of object usage and the 'subjective object'. The labyrinth is suggestive of mother's body as the first area for an infant's exploration and putative sadistic conquest. The Minotaur, in turn, suggests the infant's unconscious phantasies about the content of mother's body, namely such projective identifications onto that body as the paternal penis and the 'internal babies'. Further, the heroic dynamic personified by Theseus in the myth of the labyrinth metaphorically signifies what is here proposed as a developmental line that involves the courage to do a number of things, including to become, to create, to seek, to explore, to do, to challenge, to undertake risks, to accept, to rescue, to initiate, to think, to know and to realize. The Minotaur can thus be thought to serve as a universal subjective signifier for an 'Object of Challenge', which, if not successfully dealt with by the ego-development of the infant, transforms that default into the 'Object of Nemesis'. Ultimately, this myth of mastery speaks to the psychoanalytic process itself as well as casting light on the transformative aspects of sexual intercourse as a personal healing ritual.     

Descartes and the Labyrinth of the World

In the Rules the young Descartes likens his method to the thread that guided Theseus. The simile is born of a confidence that he has seen through the art of the followers of Daedalus and this has given him a model of how to unriddle the labyrinth of the world. From the very beginning Descartes had an interest not only in optics, perspective, and painting, but in using his knowledge of them to duplicate some of the effects said to have been created by the thaumaturgic magicians. Anamorphoses and automata not only provided Descartes with examples of deceptive appearance, but also pointed the way to the solution of the riddle they posed. Yet it is precisely the attempt to take this exit from the labyrinth of the world that threatens to lead back into it, as the search for truth is threatened by the infinity of space. To claim absolute truth, the natural philosopher would have to show that the mechanical model he has proposed is the only one that could account for the phenomena in question. This, as Descartes himself is forced to recognize, he is unable to do. Are we back in the labyrinth? Instead of seeing in Descartes's method an Ariadne's thread, Father Bourdin likens that method to Icarus. Annoyed, Descartes ridicules the good Father. But Bourdin's too often empty rhetoric raises a serious question: is Descartes Theseus, Daedalus, or Icarus? At stake is our understanding of the world we live in.