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<!-- =====''Oedipus Rex''===== -->The [[Oedipus complex]] is named after [[Oedipus]], a prominent figure in Greek mythology who unwittingly killed his [[father]] and married his [[mother]].<!-- The term is named after the [[Oedipus]], a prominent figure in Greek mythology who unwittingly unknowingly killed his father and married his mother. Taking his cue from the ancient Greek tragedy by [[Sophocles]], [[Oedipus Rex]], where [[Oedipus]] unwittingly kills his [[father]] and becomes king by marrying his [[mother]], [[Freud]] suggested that our deepest [[unconscious]] [[desire]] is to murder our [[father]] and marry our [[mother]]. The --><!-- One of the cornerstones of the theory of [[psychoanalysis]], the idea of the [[Oedipus complex]] is rather more complicated than thisderives from the Greek legend that tells how [[Oedipus]] unwittingly killed his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta. When he finally learns what he has done, thoughhe blinds himself./ It comes from the Greek myth of Oedipus, a Greek hero who unknowingly killed his father and represents married his mother. / The term derives from ''[[FreudOedipus]]'s attempt to map the ' was a prominent figure in Greek mythology who killed his father and married his mother. / [[ambivalnce|ambivalentFreud]], both attributes the "gripping power" of [[love|lovingSophocles]] and hostile' play, feelings that the ''[[childOedipus Rex]] has towards '' to its parents. In its positive form the complex manifests itself as the desire for the death depiction of what [[Freud]] considers a rival, the parent of the same sex, accompanied by the sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex. In its negative form the complex works "universal event in reverse, as the desire for the parent of the same sex and a hatred towards the parent of the opposite sexearly childhood. In actual fact, a so" --><!--called 'normal' Oedipus complex consists Followers of both positive and negative forms. What is important about the psychologist Sigmund Freud long believed that the Oedipus complex is how the child learns was common to negotiate and resolve its ambivalent feelings towards its parentsall cultures, although many psychiatrists now refute this belief. -->

The "[[Oedipus complex]]" is a concept used by [[Sigmund Freud]] to refer to the [[unconscious]] [[sexual difference|sexual]] [[desire]] of the [[child]] - especially a [[male]] [[child]] - for the parent of the opposite sex, usually accompanied by hostility and rivalry with the parent of the same sex.<!-- The [[Oedipus complex]] was defined by [[Freud saw this process ]] as taking place between an [[unconscious]] set of loving and hostile [[desire]]s which the ages [[subject]] experiences in relation to its parents; the [[subject]] [[desire]]s one parent, and thus enters into rivalry with the other parent. In the "positive" form of three the [[Oedipus complex]], the [[desire]]d parent is the parent of the opposite sex to the [[subject]], and five yearsthe parent of the same sex is the rival. With / The "[[Oedipus complex]]" is a term developed by [[Sigmund Freud]] to designate the resolution attraction on the part of the child toward the parent of the opposite sex and rivalry and hostility toward the parent of its own. --><!-- The existence of the Oedipus complex sexuality goes through explains the [[child]]s sexual attaction towards the parent of the opposite sex and jealously of the parent of the same sex. --><!-- It initially refers to the boy's perception of his mother as a period sexual object and of his father as a rival, but Freud'latencys description of this 'universal phenomenon' until it reappears during puberty becomes more complicated as he integrates the findings of his studies of the 'sexual theories of children.' --><!-- The [[Oedipus complex]] is rather more complicated than this, though, and represents [[Freud]]'s attempt to map the [[ambivalnce|ambivalent]], both [[love|loving]] and hostile, feelings that the [[child]] has towards its parents. In its positive form the complex manifests itself as the desire for the death of a rival, the parent of the same sex, accompanied by the sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex. In its negative form the complex works in reverse, as adolescent sexualitythe desire for the parent of the same sex and a hatred towards the parent of the opposite sex. In actual fact, a so-called 'normal' Oedipus complex consists of both positive and negative forms. What is important about the Oedipus complex is how the child learns to negotiate and resolve its ambivalent feelings towards its parents. -->

Most controversially, Freud insisted that the Oedipus complex was a universal, trans=====History=====<!-historical and trans-cultural phenomenon:<blockquote>References to the [[T]he Oedipus complex is the nuclear complex ]] can be foudn in some of neuroses, and constitutes the essential part of their content[[Freud]]'s earliest writings. It represents / Although the peak term does not appear in [[Freud]]'s writings until 1910, traces of infantile sexuality, which, through its after-effectsorigins can be found much earlier in his work, exercises a decisive influence on the sexuality of adults. Every new arrival on this planet is faced and by the task 1910 it was already showing signs of mastering the central importance that it was to acquire in all [[psychoanalytic theory]] thereafter. -->The "[[Oedipus complex]]" is first introduced by [[Freud]] in 1901; anyone who fails it comes to do so falls a victim to neurosisacquire central importance in [[psychoanalysis|psychoanalytic theory]] thereafter.<ref>!-- The "[[Oedipus complex]]" was posited by [[Sigmund Freud 1991d [1905]: 149</ref] as the central organizing principle of psychosexual development. crucial stage in the normal developmental process. --></blockquote!-- Although the [[Oedipus complex]] is absolutely central to Freud's theory of human development, no one paper is devoted to it. -->

===Phallic Phase===The [[Oedipus complex]] emerges in the third year of life and then declines in the fifth year. The [[Oedipus complex]] coincides with the [[phallic stage]] of [[development|psychosexual development]]. The Oedipus conflict, or Oedipus complex, was described as a state of psychosexual development and awareness first occurring around the age of 5 and a half years (a period known as the phallic stage in Freudian theory).<!-- It occurs during the phallic stage of the psycho-sexual development of the personality, approximately years three to five. The [[Oedipus complex]] emerges in the third year of life and then declines in the fifth year when the [[child]] [[renunciation|renounces]] [[desire|sexual desire]] for its parents and [[identification|identifies]] with the rival. --><!-- during which the primary erogenous zone of the body consists of the genital sex organs. when awareness of and manipulation of the genitals is supposed to be a primary source of pleasure/ during which a child becomes interested in his or her own sexual organs --<!-- Freud came to assume that, by the time he has reached the ‘phallic’ stage of development, at around the age of four or five, the small boy is sexually interested in his mother, wishes to gain exclusive possession of her, and therefore harbours hostile impulses towards his father. --><!-- Freudians normally date the [[Oedipus complex]] to the ages of three to five years; according to [[Klein]], it occurs much earlier. --><!-- Freud saw this process as taking place between the ages of three and five years. With the resolution of the Oedipus complex sexuality goes through a period of 'latency' until it reappears during puberty as adolescent sexuality. --><!-- Most controversially, Freud insisted that the Oedipus complex was a universal, trans-historical and trans-cultural phenomenon: <blockquote>[T]he Oedipus complex is the nuclear complex of neuroses, and constitutes the essential part of their content. It represents the peak of infantile sexuality, which, through its after-effects, exercises a decisive influence on the sexuality of adults. Every new arrival on this planet is faced by the task of mastering the Oedipus complex; anyone who fails to do so falls a victim to neurosis.<ref>Freud 1991d [1905]: 149</ref></blockquote> --> <!--=====Castration Complex=====The hostility towards the father arouses the fear that the father will remove the offending sex organ of the boy, called [[castration anxiety]]. The [[castration complex]] arises from the boy's assumption that, because girls are without a penis, they must have suffered castration. The reality of castration is borught home to the boy when he sees the sexual anatomy of the girl, which is lacking the protruding genitals of the male. The girl appears castrated to the boy. "If that could happen to her, it could also happen to me," is what he thinks. As a result of castration anxiety, the boy represses his incestuous desire for the mother an his hostility for the father, and the Oedipus complex disappears.--><!-- the fact that a girl does not hav emale genitals is therefore the result of her castration, --> ==Jacques Lacan==<!--In Lacanian terms, the [[Oedipus complex]] marks the transition from a dual and potentially incestuous relationship with the mother to a triadic relationship in which the role and authority of the father or the [[Name-of-the-Father]] are recognized. Although Lacan follows Freud in making the [[Oedipus complex]] the crucial moment in human development, he modifies the concept in a number of ways, both by introducing the idea of a symbolic phallic which is distinct from the biological penis, and by mapping it onto the transition from nature to culture described by [[Levi-Strauss]]. A succesful negotiation of the Oedipal triangle is a precondition for entry into the human symbolic order.--><!--===Family Complexes===[[Lacan]] first addresses the [[Oedipus complex]] in his [[{{Y}}|1938]] article on the [[family complexes|family]], where he argues that it is the last and most important of the three "family complexes." At this point his account of the [[Oedipus complex]] does not differ from [[Freud]]'s, his only originality being to emphasize its historical and cultural relativity, taking his cue from the anthropological studies by Malinowski and others.<ref>{{L}} 1938: 66</ref> It is in the 1950s that [[Lacan]] begins to develop his own distinctive conception of the [[Oedipus complex]]. Though he always follows [[Freud]] in regarding the [[Oedipus complex]] as the central complex in the [[unconscious]], he now begins to differ from [[Freud]] on a number of important points.  The most important of these is that in [[Lacan]]'s view, the [[subject]] always desires the [[mother]], and the [[father]] is always the rival, irrespective of whether the [[subject]] is [[male]] or [[female]]. Consequently, in [[Lacan]]'s account the [[male]] [[subject]] experiences the [[Oedipus complex]] in a radically asymmetrical way to the [[female]] [[subject]]. --><!-- In an early encyclopaedia article on the family (1938) [[Lacan]] adopted a fairly orthodox Freudian understanding of the Oedipus complex, and it was not until the 1950s and through the influence of Lévi-Strauss that Lacan began to develop his own distinctive 'structural' model of the [[complex]]. For [[Lacan]], the [[Oedipus complex]] is primarily a symbolic structure. When two people live together or get married they do so forvery personal and intimate reasons, but at the same time there is a wider social or symbolic aspect to this relationship. A relationship or marriage concerns not just the two people involved but also a whole social network of friends, relations and institutions. Thus, personal relationships situate men and women in a symbolic circuit of social meanings. According to [[Lacan]], therefore, we must distinguish between the real people involved and the symbolic structures that organize relationships between men and women. In our society the primary structure that defines our symbolic and unconscious relations is the Oedipus complex. More precisely the [[Oedipus complex]] represents a triangular structure that breaks the binary relationship established between the [[mother]] and [[child]] in the imaginary, although, as we will see, the imaginary is never simply a dual structure - there is always a third element involved. The infant's earliest experiences are characterized by absolute dependence upon the mother as she fulfils the child's needs of feeding, caring and nurturing. At the same time the child is faced with the enigma around the (m)other's desire - What am I in the Other's desire? The answers the child comes up with will be crucial to its resolution of the [[Oedipus complex]].-->===Symbolic Structure===The [[Oedipus complex]] is, for [[Lacan]], the paradigmatic triangular [[structure]], which contrasts with all [[dual relation]]s (though see the final paragraph below). The key function in the [[Oedipus complex]] is thus that of the [[father]], the third term which transforms the [[dual relation]] between [[mother]] and [[child]] into a [[triad]]ic [[structure]]. The [[Oedipus complex]] is thus nothing less than the passage from the [[imaginary]] [[order]] to the [[symbolic order]], "the conquest of the symbolic relation as such."<ref>{{S3}} p.199</ref> The fact that the passage to the [[symbolic]] passes via a complex sexual [[dialectic]] means that the [[subject]] cannot have access to the [[symbolic order]] without confronting the problem of [[sexual difference]].  ===Three Times===In ''[[Seminar|The Seminar, Book V]]'', [[Lacan]] analyzes this passage from the [[imaginary]] to the [[symbolic]] by [[identification|identifying]] three "times" of the [[Oedipus complex]], the sequence being one of logical rather than chronological priority.<ref>{{L}} 1957-8: [[seminar]] of 22 January 1958</ref> ------------ The first time of the [[Oedipus complex]] is characterized by the [[imaginary]] [[triangle]] of [[mother]], [[child]] and [[phallus]].  prior to the invention of the [[father]] there is never a purely [[dual relation]] between the [[mother]] and the [[child]] but always a third term, the [[phallus]], an [[imaginary]] [[object]] which the [[mother]] [[desire]]s beyond the [[child]] himself (S4, 240-1). [[Lacan]] hints that the presence of the [[imaginary]] [[phallus]] as a third term in the [[imaginary]] [[triangle]]<!-- In the previous [[seminar]] of 1956-7, [[Lacan]] calls this the [[preoedipal]] [[triangle]]. However, whether this [[triangle]] is regarded as [[preoedipal]] or as a moment in the [[Oedipus complex]] itself, the main point is the same: namely, that prior to the invention of the [[father]] there is never a purely [[dual relation]] between the [[mother]] and the [[child]] but always a third term, the [[phallus]], an [[imaginary]] [[object]] which the [[mother]] [[desire]]s beyond the [[child]] himself (S4, 240-1). [[Lacan]] hints that the presence of the [[imaginary]] [[phallus]] as a third term in the [[imaginary]] [[triangle]] indicates that the [[symbolic]] [[father]] is already functioning at this time.<ref>{{L}} 1957-8: [[seminar]] of 22 January 1958</ref> --> ===First Time===In the first time of the [[Oedipus complex]], then, the [[child]] realizes that both he and the [[mother]] are marked by a [[lack]]. The [[mother]] is marked by [[lack]], since she is seen to be [[lack|incomplete]]; otherwise, she would not [[desire]]. The [[subject]] is also marked by a [[lack]], since he does not completely [[satisfy]] the [[mother]]'s [[desire]]. The [[lack]]ing element in both cases is the [[imaginary]] [[phallus]]. The [[mother]] [[desire]]s the [[phallus]] she [[lack]]s, and (in conformity with [[Hegel]]'s theory of [[desire]]) the [[subject]] seeks to become the [[object]] of her [[desire]]; he seeks to be the [[phallus]] for the [[mother]] and fill out her [[lack]].  <!-- At this point, the [[mother]] is omnipotent and her [[desire]] is the [[law]]. Although this omnipotence may be seen as threatening from the very beginning, the sense of threat is intensified when the [[child]]'s own sexual [[drive]]s begin to manifest themselves (for example in infantile masturba­tion). This emergence of the [[real]] of the [[drive]] introduces a discordant note of [[anxiety]] into the previously seductive [[imaginary]] [[triangle]].<ref>{{S4}} p. 225-6</ref> The [[child]] is now confronted with the realization that he cannot simply fool the [[mother]]'s [[desire]] with the [[imaginary]] [[semblance]] of a [[phallus]] - he must present something in the [[real]]. Yet the [[child]]'s real organ (whether boy or girl) is hopelessly inadequate. This sense of inadequacy and impotence in the face of an omnipotent [[mother|maternal]] [[desire]] that cannot be placated gives rise to [[anxiety]]. Only the intervention of the [[father]] in the subsequent times of the [[Oedipus complex]] can provide a real solution to this [[anxiety]]. --> ===Second Time===The second 'time' of the [[Oedipus complex]] is characterized by the interven­tion of the [[imaginary]] [[father]]. The [[father]] imposes the [[law]] on the [[mother]]'s [[desire]] by denying her access to the [[phallic]] [[object]] and [[prohibition|forbidding]] the [[subject]] access to the [[mother]]. [[Lacan]] often refers to this intervention as the "[[castration]]" of the [[mother]], even though he states that, properly speaking, the operation is not one of [[castration]] but of [[privation]]. <!-- This intervention is mediated by the [[discourse]] of the [[mother]]; in other words, what is important is not that the [[real]] [[father]] step in and impose the [[law]], but that this [[law]] be respected by the [[mother]] herself in both her words and her actions. The [[subject]] now sees the [[father]] as a rival for the [[mother]]'s [[desire]]. --> ===Third Time===The third 'time' of the [[Oedipus complex]] is marked by the intervention of the [[real]] [[father]]. <!--The father appear as the one who reinstates the phallus as the desired object of the mother, rather than as the terrifying, castrating, omnipotent father who can deprive her.-->By showing that he has the [[phallus]], and neither exchanges it nor gives it,<ref>{{S3}} p. 319</ref>, the [[real]] [[father]] [[castration|castrates]] the [[child]], in the sense of making it impossible for the [[child]] to persist in trying to be the [[phallus]] for the [[mother]]; it is no use competing with the [[real]] [[father]], because he always wins.<ref>{{S4}} pp. 208-9, 227</ref> The [[subject]] is freed from the impossible and [[anxiety]]-­provoking task of having to be the [[phallus]] by realizing that the [[father]] has it. This allows the [[subject]] to [[identify]] with the [[father]]. <!--In this secondary ([[symbolic]]) [[identification]] the [[subject]] transcends the [[aggressivity]] inherent in primary ([[imaginary]]) [[identification]]. -->[[Lacan]] follows [[Freud]] in arguing that the [[superego]] is formed out of this [[Oedipal]] [[identification]] with the [[father]].<ref>{{S4}} p. 415</ref> <!-- The [[Oedipus complex]] marks the transition from the [[imaginary]] to the [[symbolic]]. Through the intervention of a third term, the [[Name-of-the-Father]], that closed circuit of mutual desire between the [[mother]] and [[child]] is broken and a space is created, within which the [[child]] can begin to identify itself as a separate being from the [[mother]]. [[Lacan]] calls this third term the [[Name-of-the-Father]], because it does not have to be the real father, or even a male figure, but is a symbolic position that the child perceives to be the location of the object of the [[mother]]'s [[desire]]. It is also, as we will see, a position of authority and the [[symbolic]] [[law]] that intervenes to prohibit the [[child]]'s [[desire]]. For [[Lacan]], the key signifier that this whole process turns upon is the [[phallus]]. -->  ==Structure==Since the [[symbolic]] is the realm of the [[law]], and since the [[Oedipus complex]] is the conquest of the [[symbolic order]], it has a normative and normalizing function. "The Oedipus complex is essential for the human being to be able to accede to a humanized structure of the real."<ref>{{S3}} p.198</ref> This normative function is to be understood in reference to both [[clinic]]al [[structure]]s and the question of [[sexuality]].  <!--===Psychopathology===[[Freud]] argued that all psychopathological [[structure]]s could be traced to a malfunction in the [[Oedipus complex]], which was thus dubbed "the nuclear complex of the neuroses". -->=====The Oedipus complex and clinical structures=====In accordance with [[Freud]]'s view of the [[Oedipus complex]] as the root of all psychopathology, [[Lacan]] relates all the [[clinic]]al [[structure]]s to difficulties in this [[complex]]. Since it is impossible to resolve the [[complex]] completely, a completely non-pathological position does not [[exist]]. The closest thing is a [[neurotic]] [[structure]]; the [[neurotic]] has come through all three times of the [[Oedipus complex]], and there is no such thing as a [[neurosis without [[Oedipus]]. On the other hand, [[psychosis]], [[perversion]] and [[phobia]] result when "something is essentially incomplete in the Oedipus complex."<ref>{{S2}} p.201</ref> In [[psychosis]], there is a fundamental blockage even before the first time of the [[Oedipus complex]]. In [[perversion]], the [[complex]] is carried through to the third time, but instead of [[identifying]] with the [[father]], the [[subject]] [[identifies]] with the [[mother]] and/or the [[imaginary]] [[phallus]], thus harking back to the [[imaginary]] [[preoedipal]] [[triangle]]. A [[phobia]] arises when the [[subject]] cannot make the transition from the second time of the [[Oedipus complex]] to the third time because the [[real]] [[father]] does not intervene; the [[phobia]] then functions as a substitute for the intervention of the [[real]] [[father]], thus permitting the [[subject]] to make the passage to the third time of the [[Oedipus complex]] (though often in an atypical way). <!-- =====Psychopathology===== Failure to negotiate this transition is held by all schools of psychoanalysis to be the primary cause of [neurosis]]. The Oedipus complex or conflict is a concept developed by Sigmund Freud to explain the origin of certain neuroses in childhood [[Freud]] argued that all psychopathological [[structure]]s could be traced to a malfunction in the [[Oedipus complex]], which was thus dubbed "the nuclear complex of the neuroses". The Oedipus complex is closely connected to the castration complex. Resolution of the Oedipus complex is believed to occur by identification with the parent of the same sex and by the renunciation of sexual interest in the parent of the opposite sex. Freud considered this complex the cornerstone of the superego and the nucleus of all human relationships. --><!--=====The Oedipus complex and sexuality=====It is the particular way the [[subject]] navigates his passage through the [[Oedipus complex]] that determines both his assumption of a sexual position and his choice of a sexual object (on the question of object choice<ref>{{S4}} p.201</ref>). --> <!--In his [[seminar]] of 1969-70, [[Lacan]] re-examines the [[Oedipus complex]], and analyzes the [[myth]] of [[Oedipus]] as one of [[Freud]]'s [[dream]]s.<ref>{{S17}} Ch. 8</ref> In this [[seminar]] (though not for the first time<ref>{{S7}}</ref>) [[Lacan]] compares the [[myth]] of [[Oedipus]] with the other [[Freud]]ian [[myth]]s (the [[myth]] of the [[father]] of the horde in ''[[Totem and Taboo]]'', and the [[myth]] of the murder of Moses<ref>{{F}} 1912-13; 1939a</ref>) and argues that the [[myth]] of ''[[Totem and Taboo]]'' is structurally opposite to the [[myth]] of [[Oedipus]]. In the [[myth]] of [[Oedipus]], the murder of the [[father]] allows [[Oedipus]] to enjoy sexual relations with his [[mother]], whereas in the [[myth]] of ''[[Totem and Taboo]]'' the murder of the [[father]], far from allowing access to the [[father]]'s [[women]], only reinforces the [[Law]] which forbids [[incest]].<ref>{{S7}} p. 176</ref> [[Lacan]] argues that in this respect the [[myth]] of ''[[Totem and Taboo]]'' is more accurate than the [[myth]] of [[Oedipus]]; the former shows that [[enjoyment]] of the [[mother ]]is impossible, whereas the latter presents [[enjoyment]] of the [[mother]] as forbidden but not impossible. In the [[Oedipus complex]] a [[prohibition]] of ''[[jouissance]]'' thus serves to hide the impossibility of this ''[[jouissance]]''; the [[subject]] can thus persist in the [[neurotic]] [[illusion]] that, were it not for the [[Law]] which forbids it, ''[[jouissance]]'' would be possible. --><!--In his reference to fourfold models, [[Lacan]] makes an implicit criticism of all triangular models of the [[Oedipus complex]]. (** Thus, though the [[Oedipus complex]] can be seen as the transition from a [[dual relation]]ship to a [[triangular]] [[structure]], [[Lacan]] argues that it is more accurately represented as the transition from a [[preoedipal]] [[triangle]] ([[mother]]-[[child]]-[[phallus]]) to an [[Oedipal]] [[quaternary]] ([[mother]]-[[child]]-[[father]]-[[phallus]]). **) Another possibility is to see the [[Oedipus complex]] as a transition from the [[preoedipal]] [[triangle]] ([[mother]]-[[child]]-[[phallus]]) to the [[Oedipal]] [[triangle]] ([[mother]]-[[child]]-[[father]]).-->  __NOTOC__  [[Category:Dictionary]]