Oedipal Asymmetries and Heterosexual Knots

One of our most common everyday perceptions is that heterosexual couple relationships are difficult. This article argues that these difficulties are not accidental but systematically created as part of the reproduction of the family. The psychoanalytic account of feminine and masculine oedipal development shows that a family structure in which women mother produces women and men with asymmetrical relational needs and wants. These lead people to form heterosexual relationships containing contradictions, which tend to undermine them.