d stepmother )? Where is the mother in such Disney classics such as Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and The Little Mermaid? In the recent Hollywood comedy, a young (Beverly Hills) princess lives alone with her indulgent father (her mother having died during a routine liposuction). All these movies might tap into the Electra complex because the mother is absent and the heroine has her father all to herself. Are the Oedipal and Electra Complexes true and valid parts of life, which art imitates? Did Freud identify core parts of personality with these complexes or are these psychoanalytic interpretations akin to the artist’s imaginations? Regardless of those answers, Freudian terms are part of our history and part of our contemporary culture....
