Volume 3 of the 'Complete Works' is a reprint of Judith Le Soldat's theory of Oedipal
development first published in 1994 now with the title she had originally planned for it:
'Robbery Murder and Betrayal'.Unlike the slightly ponderous title of the original publication
('A Theory of Human Misery') long out of print the terms murder and betrayal take us straight
to the core events that mark the fateful inner conflict of Oedipal development in which
according to Le Soldat we are inevitably enmeshed. It is no accident that the title evokes a
murder mystery for robbery murder and betrayal not only designate three significant events in
the inner Oedipal plot the comparison also underscores the author's method in tracking down
clues with the meticulous approach of a detective. The theatre of events is none other than
Freud's dream of Irma's Injection the founding dream of psychoanalysis. Le Soldat's findings
reveal an entirely different and incomparably more intense drama than hitherto presumed by
classical psychoanalytical notions of the Oedipus complex.
