Difference between revisions of "Oedipus complex"
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One of the cornerstones of the theory of [[psychoanalysis]], the idea of the [[Oedipus complex]] derives from the Greek legend that tells how [[Oedipus]] unwittingly killed his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta. | One of the cornerstones of the theory of [[psychoanalysis]], the idea of the [[Oedipus complex]] derives from the Greek legend that tells how [[Oedipus]] unwittingly killed his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta. | ||
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a gay may beieve that she has been castrated by a jealous mother who resents her sexual feelings for her father, whislt theboy fears that he might be castrated by a jealous father. | a gay may beieve that she has been castrated by a jealous mother who resents her sexual feelings for her father, whislt theboy fears that he might be castrated by a jealous father. | ||
| − | as he comes both | + | as he comes both to a ccept the reality of that threat and to identify with the father, the idssolution fo her |
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A succesful negotiation of the Oedipal triangle is a preconditionfor entry into the human symbolic order. | A succesful negotiation of the Oedipal triangle is a preconditionfor entry into the human symbolic order. | ||
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Revision as of 00:07, 18 August 2006
One of the cornerstones of the theory of psychoanalysis, the idea of the Oedipus complex derives 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, he blinds himself.
The existence of the Oedipus complex explains the childs sexual attaction towards the parent of the opposite sex and jealously of the parent of the same sex.
Although the Oedipus complex is absolutely central to Freud's theory of human development, no one paper is devoted to it.
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In Lacanian terms, the Oedipus complex marks the transiiton 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.
Failure to negotiate this transition is held by all schools of psychoanalysis to be the primary cause of [neurosis]].
Freudians normally date the Oedipus complex to the ages of three to five years; according to Klein, it occurs much earlier.
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References to the Oedipus complex can be foudn in some of Freud's earliest writings.
In a letter to Fliess
It initially refers to the boy's perception of his mother as a sexual object and of his father as a rival, but Freud's description of this 'universal phenomenon' becomes more complicated as he integrates the findings of his studies of the 'sexual theories of children.'
These theories are attempts to explain the phenomenon of seuxal difference, and assume the existence of a primal state in which tonly maleness exists; the fact that a girl does not hav emale genitals is therefore the result of her castration, castration being an equivalent to the blidning of Oedipus.
a gay may beieve that she has been castrated by a jealous mother who resents her sexual feelings for her father, whislt theboy fears that he might be castrated by a jealous father.
as he comes both to a ccept the reality of that threat and to identify with the father, the idssolution fo her ---
Although Lacan follows Freud in making the Oedipus complec the curcial moment in human development, he modifies the concept in a number of ways, both by introducing the idea of a symbolic phallis which is distinct from the biologicla 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 preconditionfor entry into the human symbolic order.
