11: Succession: Oedipus and Failsons

Abby, Patrick, and Dan get into the great Oedipal drama of our times: Succession. They discuss a ludicrously capacious number of versions of the Oedipus story; the development of the Oedipus complex throughout Freud’s writing; Freud’s notion of the primal father and the band of brothers who gather together to overthrow him; the real-life billionaire primitive accumulation monster dads who want to reverse-age themselves and live forever; Succession’s Oedipal double binds and Oedipal victories; how the show thematizes patrimony, inheritance, and destiny; what it is to have “the phallus” (and why the Roy kids don’t have it); Shiv as thwarted phallic mother; and Kendall’s symbolic castration.

The Atlantic article referenced in the episode is, “The Secret Fears of the Super Rich,” by Graeme Wood: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/04/secret-fears-of-the-super-rich/308419/ 

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