This essay is an attempt to develop a Freudian psychoanalytical argument in the reading of J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace. As this essay argues, an unresolved Oedipus complex lies hidden in the novel and permeates its narrative and the actions undertaken by David Lurie, its main protagonist. The present essay further aims to demonstrate that the novel’s structure equals the enactment of what Freud described as the primal fantasy, as experienced during the phallic stage of the psychosexual development, i.e. the seduction, the primal scene and the castration. Lurie’s attempts of seduction of his objects of desire are dramatically disrupted by a traumatic perception of the primal scene, which results in his symbolic castration and humiliation. Moreover, this essay argues that the protagonist’s relentless pursuit for desire and self-indulging gratification is the result of an underdeveloped superego due to the incomplete resolution of the Oedipus complex. In complying with the reality principle of the society, the incestuous desire towards Lurie’s own mother has been repressed into the unconscious of his mental apparatus, where it constantly exercises a tremendous pressure on the ego. Through a complex distortion process, taking place in his unconscious, mainly in the workings of his dreams, Lurie’s incestuous desire for his mother is displaced to his daughter Lucy. Lurie’s obstinacy to refuse to compromise on acting out on his desires, and to denounce them as wrong and immoral, is strongly motivated by his romantic eros. This behaviour can also be seen as a defence mechanism for his waning masculine virility and loss of control and power of his life. A giving up of his Eros would inevitably lead to death. Lurie’s figurative castration is completed as a male rival usurps his role of father, thus symbolically resolving the Oedipus complex, and sending Lurie on a possible path to redemption.