What to read after Freud's Argument for the Oedipus Complex?

"In this close reading of Freudian theory, Jerome C. Wakefield reconstructs Freud's argument for the Oedipal theory of the psychoneuroses, placing the case of Little Hans into a philosophy-of-science context, and critically rethinks the epistemological foundations of psychoanalysis. Wakefield logically evaluates four central Freudian arguments: the "undirected anxiety" argument which contends that Hans suffered from anxiety before his phobia; the "day the horse fell down" argument where, engaging in some scholarly detective work, Wakefield resolves a century-old dispute between behaviorists and psychoanalysts about the circumstances in which Hans witnessed a horse accident; the "N=1 sexual repression" argument tracing the trajectory of Hans's sexual desires and matching them to the Oedipal theory's predictions; and lastly, the "detailed symptom characteristics" or "suitability" argument, in which Freud argues that the Oedipal theory is needed to understand otherwise inexplicable details of the phobia's symptoms. Wakefield demonstrates that, although Freud's arguments are brilliantly conceived, he misread the facts of the Hans case, thereby providing an opportunity for renewed consideration of the distinctive contribution of psychoanalysis: the understanding of individual meaning systems and the confronting of meanings outside of focal awareness in order to reshape an individual's fate. This book will be of interest to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists alike, and prove essential for scholars working in the fields of psychoanalysis, philosophy of science and the history of psychiatry"--