"The first cut is the deepest." The significance of the negative Oedipus complex in female perversion

"The first cut is the deepest." The significance of the negative Oedipus complex in female perversion. Throughout its history, the clinically evident differences between male and female perversion have been given scant attention in psychoanalytic discourse. Most of the time, attempts to deal with the subject were geared to a definition and etiology of sexual perversion closely modeled on male sexuality, leaving female perversion largely unaccounted for. Estela Welldon was the first to take a different view, hypothesizing that in women sexual perversion takes the form of a "perversion of maternality" featuring above all a fetishization of the reproductive functions. Ultimately, however, her theoretical conclusions remained within the confines of the different biological/anatomical givens of the sexes. This article advocates a reinterpretation of Welldon's observations against the background of the "turn" in Freud's later theory of femininity. The aim is to develop a genuinely psychoanalytic understanding of female development in the context of the tensions between perversion and normalcy. The essential pillars in the structure of the article are (a) thoughts on early object experiences and their later, sex-specific overforming and (b) on the gender-specific materialization of the positive and negative Oedipus complex.