Sir, - Ms Knox (March 25th) implies that I am somehow discomfited by Freud. Not at all. Indeed, some of his theories are compelling and I entirely subscribe to his concept of denial - a defence mechanism much in evidence in Ms Knox's "rebuttal" of my review.
Ms Knox not only fails to recall her perception of Wilde's trial as being the result of his Oedipus complex, but also her assertion that his childhood relationship with his mother formed the foundation for his homosexuality. This matter can be clarified by reference to Ms Knox's book, Oscar Wilde, a Long and Lovely Suicide.
On page 97 she writes: "It is not difficult to see that the challenge of Queensberry was the endgame of Wilde's Oedipal conflict." Ms Knox states on page 20: "His mother is believed to have hoped for a girl when she was pregnant with Oscar and to have dressed him in female garb and ornaments like a little Hindoo idol long past the age when little boys were customarily dolled up in female attire... She must also have passed on her wish that he be a girl."
I trust this corrects Ms Knox's impression that she has been misrepresented. - Yours, etc.,
Gardiner Street,
Dublin 1.