Oedipus

Definition of Oedipus complex

Oedipus complex denotes the emotions and ideas that the mind keeps in the unconscious, via dynamic repression, that concentrate upon a boy’s desire to sexually possess his mother, and kill his father. Sigmund Freud, who coined the term "Oedipus complex", believed that the Oedipus complex is a desire for the mother in both sexes (he believed that girls have a homosexual attraction towards their mother).

Understanding Oedipus complex

According to Freud, the boy wishes to possess his mother and replace his father, who he views as a rival for his mother's affections. The Oedipal complex occurs in the phallic stage of psychosexual development between the ages of three and five. The phallic stage serves as an important point in the formation of sexual identity.

Resolving the Oedipus complex

In order to develop into a successful adult with a health identity, the child must identify with the same-sex parent in order to resolve the conflict. Freud suggested that while the primal id wants to eliminate the father, the more realistic ego knows that the father is much stronger.

According to Freud, the boy then experiences what he called castration anxiety - a fear of both literal and figurative emasculation. Freud believed that as the child becomes aware of the physical differences between males and females, he assumes that the female's penis has been removed and that his father will also castrate him as a punishment for desiring his mother.

In order to resolve the conflict, the boy then identifies with his father. It is at this point that the super-ego is formed. The super-ego becomes a sort of inner moral authority, an internalization of the father figure that strives to suppress the urges of the id and make the ego act upon these idealistic standards.

Books\plays that deal with Oedipus complex.

1. Social psychology and deviant behavior

2. The legacy of Cleopatra.

3. Die Traumdeutung

4. A separate piece (Norwegian version)

5. Pandora’s Box