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The [[Oedipus complex]] was defined by [[Freud]] as an [[unconscious]] set of loving and hostile [[desire]]s which the [[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 the [[Oedipus complex]], the [[desire]]d parent is the parent of the opposite sex to the [[subject]], and the parent of the same sex is the rival.
The [[Oedipus complex]] emerges in the third year of life and then declines in the fifth year, when the child renounces [[desire|sexual desire]] for its parents and identifies with the rival.
[[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".
Although the term does not appear in [[Freud]]'s writings until 1910, traces of its origins can be found much earlier in his work, and by 1910 it was already showing signs of the central importance that it was to acquire in all [[psychoanalytic theory]] thereafter.
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[[Lacan]] first addresses the [[Oedipus complex]] in his 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 emphasise its historical and cultural relativity, taking his cue from the anthropological studies by Malinowski and others.<ref>{{L}} 1938: 66</ref>
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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]].
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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]].
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In ''[[Seminar|The Seminar, Book V]]'', [[Lacan]] analyses 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>
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The first time of the [[Oedipus complex]] is characterised by the [[imaginary]] [[triangle]] of [[mother]], [[child]] and [[phallus]].
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>
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In the first time of the [[Oedipus complex]], then, the [[child]] realises that both he and the [[mother]] are marked by a [[lack]].
The [[mother]] is marked by [[lack]], since she is seen to be 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 realisation 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 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]].
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The second 'time' of the [[Oedipus complex]] is characterised 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 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]].
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The third 'time' of the [[Oedipus complex]] is marked by the intervention of the [[real]] [[father]].
By showing that he has the [[phallus]], and neither exchanges it nor gives it (S3, 319), 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}} p.208-9, 227</ref>
The [[subject]] is freed from the impossible and [[anxiety]]-provoking task of having to be the phallus by realising 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>
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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 normalising function.
<blockquote>"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></blockquote>
This normative function is to be understood in reference to both [[clinic]]al [[structure]]s and the question of [[sexuality]].
=====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).
=====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>).
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In his [[seminar]] of 1969-70, [[Lacan]] re-examines the [[Oedipus complex]], and analyses 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.
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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]]).
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