The Phaedra Complex (1969)

This item is an unsigned editorial in JAMA, not a research study, and it does not mention asbestos. It discussed the "Phaedra complex," a term the editorial credited to Messer in a then-recent issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. Drawing on the Greek story of Phaedra, the editorial described the complex as attraction between a stepparent and a stepchild, comparing it to the Oedipus and Electra complexes in natural parent-child relationships. It suggested that the incest taboo may be weaker between stepparents and stepchildren. To explain why the topic mattered, it cited an estimated 494,000 divorces or annulments in the United States in 1966 and said the number had increased by 1967 (the scan prints the 1967 figure as "534.000"). The editorial stated that these complexes can be seen as part of the "family romance" and need not be pathological, and that awareness of family romance diminishes secrecy, furtiveness and guilt. The text breaks off mid-sentence, so the editorial's final conclusion is not available. The page also opens with the end of a separate editorial on toxemia of pregnancy.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

From J-M's medical library

This copy comes from the Johns-Manville medical library. It was among the papers J-M kept in its medical library without an index entry.

We publish an editorial for research and commentary: it shows what the medical literature in a leading asbestos company's own library said on the subject, and when. Our summary above is our own reading of it. The copyright stays with the publisher.