In psychoanalytic theory, the term Oedipus complex denotes the emotions and ideas that the mind keeps in the unconscious, via dynamic repression, that concentrates upon a child's desire to sexually possess the parent of the opposite sex (e.g. males attracted to their mothers, whereas females are attracted to their fathers). Sigmund Freud, who coined the term "Oedipus complex" believed that the Oedipus complex is a desire for the parent in both males and females; Freud deprecated the term "Electra complex", which was introduced by Carl Gustav Jung in regards to the Oedipus complex manifested in young girls. The Oedipus complex occurs in the third — phallic stage (ages 3–6) — of five psychosexual development stages: (i) the oral, (ii) the anal, (iii) the phallic, (iv) the latent, and (v) the genital — in which the source of libidinal pleasure is in a different erogenous zone of the infant's body.
In classical Freudian psychoanalytic theory, child's identification with the same-sex parent is the successful resolution of the Oedipus complex and of the Electra complex; key psychological experiences that are necessary for the development of a mature sexual role and identity. Sigmund Freud further proposed that boys and girls experience the complexes differently: boys in a form of castration anxiety, girls in a form of penis envy; and that unsuccessful resolution of the complexes might lead to neurosis, paedophilia, and homosexuality. Men and women who are fixated in the Oedipal and Electra stages of their psychosexual development might be considered "mother-fixated" and "father-fixated". In adult life this can lead to a choice of a sexual partner who resembles one's parent.
Read more about Oedipus Complex: Background, Freudian Theoretic Revision, Criticism, See Also
Other articles related to "oedipus complex, oedipus, complex":
... Anti-Oedipus Feminism and the Oedipus complex Triad (sociology) Castration anxiety Polymorphous perversity ...
... anxiety in the “phase before the development of the Oedipus complex” (p ... The Oedipus complex, Freud explained tirelessly, was the nucleus of the neurosis and the foundational source of all art, myth, religion, philosophy, therapy – indeed of all human ... the first time that anyone in the inner circle had dared to suggest that the Oedipus complex might not be the supreme causal factor in psychoanalysis ...
... Phallic stage of psychosexual development, a boy’s decisive experience is the Oedipus complex describing his son–father competition for sexual possession of mother ... This psychological complex indirectly derives from the Greek mythologic character Oedipus, who unwittingly killed his father and sexually possessed his mother ... Freud applied the Oedipus complex to the development of boys and girls alike he then developed the female aspect of phallic-stage psychosexual development as the feminine Oedipus attitude and the ...
... In the Oedipus Complex the wish to murder or harm the same-sex parent leads to feelings of guilt ... In Loewald's view the resolution of the Oedipus Complex involved symbolic destruction of the parents as libidinal objects ...
... by combining the idea of internalization with the idea of the Oedipus complex ... In early childhood, prior to the Oedipus complex, an individual forms an important identification with the father ... Later, the entire dual-natured complex is taken internally, forming a new part of his ego which has the same moral authority that a parent might have ...
Famous quotes related to oedipus complex:
“Freudianism is much more nearly a religion than a science, inasmuch as the relation between analyst and patient has a great deal in common with that between priest and communicant at confessional, and such ideas as the Oedipus complex, the superego, the libido, and the id exert an effect upon the converted which is almost identical with what flows to the devout Christian from godhead, trinity, grace, and immortality.”
—Robert Nisbet (b. 1913)