Although sibling relations have been observed by psychoanalysts, there is no paradigm that can account for them. The lecture argues that we need to re-read Freud's notions of a life and of a death-drive through these lateral relations. The human psyche is always social and the neonate's society includes siblings and peers as well as parents. Freud saw siblings as an extension from the parental Oedipus complex; the lecture argues that we need to see their autonomy.

Juliet Mitchell is Professor of Psychoanalysis and Gender Studies at the University of Cambridge, England, where she is also Head of the Department of Social and Political Sciences. She is a Full Member of the British Psychoanalytical Society, and the International Society.

Her books include: Psychoanalysis and Feminism, Women: The Longest Revolution and Mad Men and Medusas: Reclaiming Hysteria and The Effects of Sibling Relations on the Human Conditiond . Her writings have been translated into twenty-five languages and she has been a visiting Professor and lecturer in more than twenty universities.