The Little Nell Complex--an Oedipal variant.

An oedipal relationship between a girl and her grandfather might be named the "Little Nell Complex" after Dickens' description of the close relationship between thirteen year old Little Nell and her grandfather in "The Old Curiosity Shop". A clinical illustration of a Little Nell Complex is described in a seventeen year old girl who presented with depression following the death of her grandmother. Oedipal complexes existing between the patient and her parents, the patient and her grandparents, and between the patient's mother and her parents, are described. In offering notations the "erotic" component of the Oedipus complex has usually received more attention than the "attachment" component. It is felt that Bowlby's concepts of attachment behaviour may be useful in the consideration of oedipal behaviour and in the structuring of therapy.