Laius complex

The Laius complex revolves around the paternal wish for filicide, particularly for the extinction of the male heir, in an attempt to ensure one will have no successors.

Indo-European mythology contains a number of stories of foundlings, like Cyrus the Great or Romulus and Remus, outcast after a prophecy that they will replace the dynasty into which they are born.

[7] The other emphasises the narcissism in the Laius/Oedipus relationship – the belief that there is only room for a single figure to exist in life, leading inevitably to the destruction of the one or the other competitor, father or son.

[8] How far the playing down of the Laius neurosis (in orthodox psychoanalysis)[9] can be linked to what Julia Kristeva called Freud's "paternal vision of childhood",[10] remains for the 21st century an open question.

Manifestations of such Laius Complex during treatment are, according to Ettinger, close to psychosis (not neurosis), and can lead to the production of psychotic folie-a-deux.