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A Man of Achievement ‐ Sophocles’ Oedipus
Author(s) -
Williams Meg Harris
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0118.1994.tb00725.x
Subject(s) - curse , psychology , pessimism , beauty , hero , legend , psychoanalysis , oedipus complex , poetry , literature , aesthetics , art , epistemology , philosophy , psychoanalytic theory , theology
This paper traces the psychological implications of Sophocles’ treatment of the Oedipus legend, in the light of Bion's concept of‘catastrophic change’ and Keats's of ‘negative capability’. The first‐written play, Antigone , concludes with the curse of revenge which falls when the mind‐city fails to integrate conflicting emotions. The hero of Oedipus Tyrannos , however, overcomes the mindless pessimism which would deflect him from self‐knowledge, by means of a necessary weaning process founded on memories of infancy. Finally, Oedipus at Colonus shows how mental beauty or poetry metamorphoses from the appearance of ugliness and makes ideas transmissible.