Psychology Facts

▼ Oedipus Complex ▼

》A complex is a core pattern of emotions, memories, perceptions, and wishes in the personal unconscious organized around a common theme, such as power or status.

》The Oedipus complex, also known as the Oedipal complex, describes a child's feelings of desire for their opposite-sex parent and jealousy and anger toward their same-sex parent. The concept was first introduced by Sigmund Freud in his theory of psychosexual stages of development.

》In simple terms, a boy feels that he is competing with his father for possession of his mother, while a girl feels that she is competing with her mother for her father's affection.
According to Freud, children view their same-sex parents as a rival for the opposite-sex parent's attention and affection.

》The analogous stage for girls is known as the Electra complex in which girls feel desire for their fathers and jealousy of their mothers. The term Electra complex was introduced by Carl Jung to describe how this complex manifests in girls. Freud, however, believed that the term Oedipus complex referred to both boys and girls, although he believed that each sex experiences it differently.

》Freud also suggested that when girls discover that they do not have a penis, they develop penis envy and resentment toward their mothers for "sending her into the world so insufficiently equipped." Eventually, this resentment gives way to identification with her mother and the process of internalizing the attributes and characteristics of her same-sex parent.

》Freud first proposed the concept of the Oedipus complex in his 1899 book "The Interpretation of Dreams,"

》In the Greek myth, Oedipus is abandoned at birth and thus does not know who his parents are. It is only after he had killed his father and married his mother that he learns their true identities.

》Freud believed that all children go through this process as a normal part of development. Some signs that a child is experiencing the Oedipus complex include:

Becoming overly attached to one parent

Fixation on one parent

Hostility toward the other parent

Jealousy of one parent

Possessiveness of one parent

Acting angry or hostile toward the rival parent

Becoming angry or jealous when the rival parent shows affection to the desired parent

Indicating that they want to marry the desired parent

Trying to get the attention of the desired parent

》At each stage in Freud's theory of psychosexual development, children face a developmental conflict that must be resolved in order to form a healthy adult personality. In order to develop into a successful adult with a healthy identity, the child must identify with the same-sex parent in order to resolve the conflict of the phallic stage.

》As when conflicts at other psychosexual stages are not resolved, a fixation at that point in development can result. Freud suggested that boys who do not deal with this conflict effectively become "mother-fixated" while girls become "father-fixated."