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{{TopTopp}}[[complexe ]] d'Oedipe{{Bottom}}  =====Sigmund Freud=====The "[[Oedipus complex]]" is considered by [[Freud]] as one of the "cornerstones" of [[psychoanalysis]].<ref>{{F}} (1923a) "[[Sigmund Freud:Bibliography|Two Encyclopaedia Articles]]", [[SE]], Vol. 18, p. 247.</ref> =====''Oedipus Rex''=====The term is named after the [[Oedipus]], a prominent figure in Greek mythology who unwittingly unknowingly killed his father and married his mother. [[Freud]] remarks that [[Sophocles]]'s play, ''[[Oedipus Rex]]'' has such "gripping power" because being in love with one's [[mother]] and jealous of one's [[father]] is "a universal event in early childhood."<ref>{{F}} ''A letter to Fliess''. 17 October 1897.</ref>  =====Unconscious Desire=====The [[Oedipus complex]] is a concept used by [[Freud]] to describe the [[unconscious]] ([[sexual difference|sexual]]) [[desire]] of the [[child]] -- especially the [[male]] [[child]] -- for the parent of the opposite sex, in conjunction with a corresponding attitude of rivalry and hostility towards the parent of the same sex. The "[[Oedipus complex]]" is a term developed by Sigmund Freud to designate the attraction on the part of the child toward the parent of the opposite sex and rivalry and hostility toward the parent of its own.  =====Psychosexual Development===== The [[Oedipus complex]] is a concept used by [[Freud]] in his theory of the [[sexual difference|psychosexual stages]] of [[childhood]] [[development]].The [[Oedipus complex]] is absolutely central to [[Freud]]'s theory of the [[sexual difference|psychosexual stages]] of [[childhood]] [[development]]. The [[Oedipus complex]] is the central concept in [[Freud]]'s theory of the [[sexual difference|psychosexual stages]] of [[childhood]] [[development]]. The [[Oedipus complex]] occurs in the [[phallic stage]] of [[sexual difference|psychosexual stages]] [[development]].               ==========

=======Phallic Phase===    According to Freud, The [[Oedipus complex]] emerges in the child must give up his sexual attraction for his mother [[third]] year of [[life]] and then declines in order to resolve this attraction the fifth year, and move to coincides with the next [[phallic stage ]] of [[development|psychosexual development]]. Failure to do so would lead the child to become fixated in this stage. Typically the <!-- The Oedipus conflict, or Oedipus Complex refers to complex, was described as a boy wanting to possess his mother, while [[state]] of [[psychosexual development]] and [[awareness]] first occurring around the Electra Complex refers to age of 5 and a half years (a girl wishing to possess her father. But don't be surprised if some refer to period known as the Oedipus Complex for both boys and girlsphallic stage in [[Freudian]] theory).--> The threat <!-- It occurs during the phallic stage of punishment from the father causes repression [[psycho]]-sexual development of these id impulsesthe [[personality]], approximately years [[three]] to five. Conflict The [[Oedipus complex]] emerges in little boys between their love for their mothers, their jealousy the third year of their fathers, life and their fear that their fathers will punish them for loving their mothers. Girls have a similar sexual desire for then declines in the father which is repressed in analogous fashion and is called fifth year when the Electra complex.    =====Phallic Stage=====The [[Oedipus complexchild]] [[renunciation|renounces]] coincides with the [[phallic stagedesire|sexual desire]] of for its parents and [[developmentidentification|psychosexual developmentidentifies]], durwith the rival. --> ing <!-- 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-- 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). <!-- 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.--> =====Psychosexual Development===== The "<!-- Freudians normally date the [[Oedipus complex]]" was posited by to the ages of three to five years; according to [[Sigmund FreudKlein]] as the central organizing principle of psychosexual development, it occurs much earlier.--> rucial stage in the normal developmental <!-- Freud saw this process. The as taking [[Oedipus complexplace]] emerges in between the third year ages of life three and then declines in five years. With the fifth year, when the child renounces [[desire|sexual desireresolution]] for its parents and identifies with the rival. It occurs during the phallic stage of the psycho-sexual development Oedipus complex sexuality goes through a period of the personality, approximately years three to five.=====Unconscious Desire===== The '[[Oedipus complexlatency]] was defined by ' until it reappears during [[Freudpuberty]] as an adolescent sexuality. --><!-- Most controversially, Freud insisted that the Oedipus complex was a universal, trans-historical and trans-[[unconsciouscultural]] set phenomenon: <blockquote>[T]he Oedipus complex is the nuclear complex of loving and hostile [[desireneuroses]]s which , and constitutes the essential part of their [[subjectcontent]] experiences in relation to its parents; . It represents the peak of [[subjectinfantile]] sexuality, which, through its after-effects, exercises a decisive influence on the sexuality of [[desireadults]]s one parent, and thus enters into rivalry with the other parent.  In Every new arrival on this planet is faced by the "positive" form task of mastering the [[Oedipus complex]], the ; anyone who fails to do so falls a [[desirevictim]]d parent is the parent of the opposite sex to the [[subjectneurosis]], and the parent of the same sex is the rival.  UNIVERSALFollowers of the psychologist Sigmund <ref>Freud long believed that the Oedipus complex was common to all cultures, although many psychiatrists now refute this belief.1991d [1905]: 149</ref></blockquote> -->

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, -->

The ==Jacques Lacan==<!--In [[Lacanian]] [[terms]], the [[castration Oedipus complex]] arises marks the transition from a [[dual]] and potentially incestuous [[relationship]] with the boy's assumption that, because girls are without mother to a penis, they must have suffered castration.  The reality of castration is borught home to triadic relationship in which the boy when he sees the sexual anatomy [[role]] and [[authority]] of the girl, which is lacking father or the protruding genitals [[Name-of -the male-Father]] are recognized. The girl appears castrated to Although Lacan follows Freud in making the [[Oedipus complex]] the boy. "If that could happen to hercrucial [[moment]] in human development, it could also happen to me," is what he thinks. As modifies the concept in a result [[number]] of castration anxietyways, both by introducing the boy represses his incestuous desire for idea of a symbolic phallic which is distinct from the mother an his hostility for the father[[biological]] penis, and the Oedipus complex disappears. =====Psychopathology===== The Oedipus complex or conflict is a concept developed by Sigmund Freud to explain [[mapping]] it onto the origin of certain neuroses in childhood  transition from [[Freudnature]] argued that all psychopathological to [[structureculture]]s could be traced to a malfunction in the described by [[Oedipus complexLevi-Strauss]], which was thus dubbed "the nuclear complex of the neuroses".  The Oedipus complex is closely connected to the castration complex.   Resolution A succesful negotiation of the Oedipus complex Oedipal triangle is believed to occur by identification with the parent of a precondition for entry into 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 relationshipssymbolic order. -->It has been found to be characteristic of a normal individual that he learns to master his Oedipus complex whereas the neurotic subject remains involved in it.<!--=====Jacques Lacan==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 emphasise 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]].  ------------ 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]].  ---------------- 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> ------------ The first time of the [[Oedipus complex]] is characterised by the [[imaginary]] [[triangle]] of [[mother]], [[child]] and [[phallus]].

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 previous family]] (1938) [[Lacan]] adopted a fairly orthodox Freudian [[seminarunderstanding]] of 1956the Oedipus complex, and it was not until the 1950s and through the influence of Lévi-7[[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]] calls this , 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 [[preoedipalsymbolic order]] without confronting the problem of [[trianglesexual difference]].

===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====<!--The [[Lacanmother]] hints that provides the presence necessary care, feeding and [[satisfaction]] of [[need]]s, while there is within her the [[imaginarydesire]] for something other than [[satisfaction|satisfying]] the [[infant]]'s [[desire]]. The [[mother]] [[lack]] s the [[phallus]] as a third term and [[desire]]s in the [[imaginaryinfant]] something other than himself - the [[phallus]] she [[lack]]s (the basis of the relationship with her [[father]], and of her own [[Oedipus complex]]). The [[mother]] [[desire]]s something apart from attending to the [[child]]'s [[need]]s and cares, for behind her there is the [[Symbolic]] [[Order]] on which she depends, and also the [[trianglephallus]] indicates that , which plays the prominent role in the [[symbolicSymbolic]] [[Order]] . The [[fatherinfant]] is already functioning at then caught in an imaginary relationship with the mother, familiar from the [[mirror]] stage, only this time.<ref>{{L}} 1957-8: centered on the [[presence]] and [[seminarabsence]] of 22 January 1958</ref>the [[phallus]].

The [[infant]] takes up a [[particular]] attitude with respect to the mother and the phallus. In the first time of the [[Oedipus complex]], the [[child]] tries to [[identification|identify]] with the [[mother]]'s [[object]] of [[desire]], the [[phallus]]. (his desire is the desire of the Other)-->In the first time of the [[Oedipus complex]], the [[child]] slowly comes to realize that it is not identical to, or the sole object of, the [[mother]]'s [[desire]], as her [[desire]] is directed elsewhere. He or she will therefore attempt to [[satisfy]] her [[desire]] by becoming the [[object]] of her [[desire]]. The [[dual relation|dyadic relationship]] between the [[mother]] and [[child]] is thus turned into a triangular relationship between the [[child]], the [[mother]] and the [[object]] of her [[desire]]. Lacan calls this third term the [[imaginary phallus]]. The [[imaginary]] [[phallus]] is what the [[child]] assumes someone must have in order for [[them]] to be the [[object]] of the [[mother]]'s [[desire]] and, as her [[desire]] is usually directed towards the [[father]], it is assumed that he possesses the [[phallus]]. Through trying to satisfy the [[mother]]'s [[desire]], the [[child]] identifies with the object that it presumes she has lost and attempts to become that [[object]] for her.<!--((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 [[lack]]ing element 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]]. The [[child]] seeks to [[identification|identify]] with what he or she supposes to be the [[object]] of her [[desire]], with the object that the mother supposedly [[lacks]], the object that is capable of filling in the lack in the other is the phallus. <blockquote>What the child wants is to become the desire of [[desire,]] to be able to satisfy the mother's desire, that is, "to be or not to be" the object of the mother's desire.... To please the mother ...it is necessary and sufficient to be the phallus. 7 [ Lacan 1957-1958, seminar of January 22, 1958 ]</blockquote>--><!--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]]. -->

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]].  ------------====Second====The second 'time' of the [[Oedipus complex]] is characterised 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]].  ---------><!--In this second [[position]], the father intervenes, either directly or through the mother's discourse, as the omnipotent and prohibiting figure, putting in question and forbidding the desire of the mother (le [[désir]] de la Mère), laying down the law and permitting identification with him as the one who has the phallus. ((He says, as it were, to the child, "no you won't [[sleep]] with your mother"; and to the mother, "No, the child is not your phallus. I have it." -->

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>  ------------- 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 structuresClinical 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]].

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 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.  ------------- 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__               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 [[child]]s 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.  - 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.  -- 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.  [[Category:Dictionary]]           -------------------  ==Oedipus complex==  ==Sigmund Freud==  ==Jacques Lacan==      ==The Oedipus complex and clinical structures== ==The Oedipus complex and sexuality==