ABSTRACT
Perversion involves a, predominantly unconscious, refusal to give up deception. An appreciation of deception could be seen as the foundation stone of psychodynamic understanding since it plays such an important part in the life of the unconscious mind both in wakefulness and in dreaming. It is also the central theme in the myth of Oedipus. This myth has a depth of meaning for us many centuries after it was first recorded because it is timeless. Humanity embraces deception, so the myth speaks to our own nature. Steiner put forward a good case for not interpreting Sophocles’ play in terms of the bravery of a victim of fate who gradually learns the unacceptable truth about himself (such as a patient might do in psychotherapy). Instead he emphasised another sort of conscious/unconscious split. The chief characters in the play must all have ‘known’ the identity of Oedipus, but had their own reasons for ‘not realising’ what was going on and not appreciating that Oedipus had committed parricide and incest. The other characters knew about Oedipus but seemed not to know they knew. Their experience and knowledge were at odds and had come together to deceive rather than to inform (Steiner 1985).
