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The Medea Complex: The Mother's Homicidal Wishes to her Child

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

Edward S. Stern
Edward S. Stern*
Affiliation:
The Central Hospital, Hatton, near Warwick
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Extract

A Complex is a group of emotionally invested ideas that have unconscious activities. Contrary though it be to the popular and sentimental idea of an overriding mother love, it is common, especially in child psychiatry, to find a mother's lively hatred and even homicidal wishes towards her child. I consider that this should be called “The Medea Complex.”

Type
Part I.—Original Articles
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 94 , Issue 395 , April 1948 , pp. 321 - 331
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1948 

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