Oedipal Conflict Essay

The clinical vignette presents a client that is recreating her past experiences in her present martial-family situation. The first example of how the past-present relationship is expressed in the clinical material is when the client describes her mother feeling dissatisfied and unhappy in her relationship. This example shows how the client’s recreation of her past experiences is played out by her own dissatisfaction towards her current relationship. The client mentioned that since getting married, the client has been able to see that her parents struggled significantly in their marriage and they lacked relatedness. The client is now noticing these traits in her own marriage.

The second example is the client’s choice of becoming a stay-at-home

Often, children play out their fantasies in which there is some sort of retribution from the parent or parent-surrogate of the same sex” (Berzoff, Flanagan, and Hertz, 2016, p. 38). The first example is illustrated by the client’s reencounter that “her father reminded her that she was ‘daddy’s girl.’ Furthermore, the client’s statements if feeling that her father would take her side when she had a problem with her mother and feeling like the ‘odd one out’ when she saw her parents together illustrates the oedipal conflict. This is an example of the oedipal conflict because the client appears to have fantasies towards the parent of the opposite sex. She considers herself to have a fantasized relationship with her father by defining herself as ‘daddy’s girl.’ The client’s feelings of being the ‘odd one out’ might be feelings of jealousy that the client has towards her mother. The aggression the client might unconsciously have towards her mother is played out by her describing her problems with her mother and her father coming to rescue her by taking her

Klein explained that, “For mature adults there can be pain in trying to reconcile being both full of love and at the same time full of hate for the same person” (Berzoff, Flanagan, and Hertz, 2016, p. 139). The client mentioned of a time where she tried to confide with her father about her marital problems. The client described that her father responded with empathy; however, he followed by teasing the client and reminding her of her hurtful decisions of not attending law school. This is an example of Klein’s depressive position because the client sees her father as the good empathic and attentive caregiver; however, she realizes that her father is as well a caregiver who disappoints and teases her. Her father is both the person whom she loves and hates for not being full attuned to her