Conclusion
As was said in the Introduction, all forms of sexual aberrations can be traced, back to the ramifications of the Oedipus complex and this was exemplified within these pages.
It was also demonstrated that the two currents of the oedipal situation-the desire for the incestuous relationship with the mother and the fear of this as it applies to the horror of castration-is the common criterion of these cases. An individual who falls ill, deviates from the norm, does so due to an inability to successfully handle the Oedipus situation.
The individual's first desires are for his mother and his first aggressions are towards his father, the person who forces him out into the world, away from the serene blissful state of motherliness. If it were not for this inhibition, each impulse would know only one destiny: gratification. We see, then, that this inhibitory identification with the father, which forms the castration complex and the negative element of the Oedipus situation, not only represents the factor which causes the outbreak of aberration, but also the factor which makes civilization possible.
The castration complex institutes the defenses of the mind which drive it out of the mother's shadow and into the world to seek substitute satisfactions. We have mentioned sublimation as being one of these defenses which fights off our incestuous longings. Sublimation takes up the excess libido which is not able to find a direct outlet in the external world from mother substitutes, therefore desexualizing it.
This desexualization is responsible for all the constructions, mental and otherwise, which make civilization possible. From this sublimation, our incestuous sexual desires are transformed into civilizing substitutes, such as into houses or dwellings which serve as substitutes to provide us with the shelter which we once longed to receive from the mother. In the construction of these substitutes, the original aggressive instinct against the prohibiting father is transformed into constructive aggressive tendencies, lending to civilization an energy which is utilized in the transformation and overcoming of mother nature.
With this civilizing trend, the forces of the Oedipus situation are relegated to the forgotten past; they are placed out of the mind. But like any desire or mental construction once it has come into existence, it can no longer vanish and its effects are continually at work even if we are not conscious of them. The forces of the Oedipus complex are repressed into the unconscious where they continue to live and affect our life. And it is only when and if we come to conscious terms that we will find any freedom from them.
What modern society calls the normal individual is only such because he has defended against these now unconscious impulses more successfully than the neurotic. But if he is to gain a lasting liberation and a subsequent knowledge of himself he must come to terms with these same forces which the neurotic is forced to do by his inability to cope with the demands of society.
Anal eroticism, as a variation and accompaniment of the sexual norm, can be fulfilling and provide diversion for normal sexual intercourse. What we have observed in these case histories, however, is the psychic conflict resulting from compulsive excess, which provides as much mental torment as it does physical pleasure.