Why does the character of the devouring mother have such force? Jo Fidgen and company discuss D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, regarded by many critics as a classic depiction of Sigmund Freud's Oedipus Complex. Gertrude Morel has a passionate and controlling relationship with her son, Paul.

At the same time as Lawrence was writing, Freud was making a splash with his theories about women's sexual fantasies and penis envy. Detractors say he gave a modern legitimacy to age-old misogyny by giving support to the belief that women are less rational than men.

In the fourth in a series of programmes exploring how some of our most read books have distilled and influenced negative attitudes to women, writers Blake Morrison and Lisa Appignanesi defend Lawrence and Freud and discuss how we should interpret them. Are women still facing the consequences of their school of thought? Show less