Oedipus complex

1. What is an Oedipus Complex?

2. Definition a boy is fixated on his mother and competes with his father for maternal attention. Opposite is the Electra Complex: the attraction of a girl to her father and rivalry with her mother

3. Historical Oedipus In the Greek play by Sophocles, Laius , king of Thebes, is told by an oracle that he would be killed by his son and so leaves Oedipus out on the mountainside to die. Oedipus is rescued by a shepherd and taken to the king of Corinth who raises him as a son. Oedipus, in turn, is told by the Delphic oracle that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Horrified by this, he flees Corinth. At a crossroads he meets Laius , quarrels and kills him. At Thebes, he correctly answers the sphinx's question and hence wins the hand of Jocasta , his real mother, with whom he had two sons and two daughters. When at last the truth comes out, Jocasta hangs herself and Oedipus, finding her, blinds himself with her golden brooch. Electra was the daughter of Agamemnon who helped plan the murder of her mother.

4. Freud Freud puts the Oedipal stage as occurring between 3-5 years. He considers it a stage where the child experiences an erotic attachment to one parent and hostility toward the other parent. The ensuing triangular tension is seen as being the root of most mental disorders. Freud cites the incest taboo as as at the root of many other prohibitions. He sees the struggle against this as a core part of this development period with transgressions in practice and fantasy. “We cannot get away from the assumption that man's sense of guilt springs from the Oedipus complex and was acquired at the killing of the father by the brothers banned together.” (Freud, 1930) Freud links the Oedipus complex with development the superego, which uses guilt to prevent continuation of incestuously oriented relationships. Failure to get past this trigger point and into the symbolic order is considered to be a classic cause of lasting neurosis.

5. Signs of the Complex 1. After identifying their own gender the child may also form some kind of erotic attachment to the parent of the opposite sex. They do not understand the act of sex, but feel physical attraction when they think about the parent in question. 2. They have jealousy for their same gender parent and compete for affection 3. The mother becomes an ideal of perfection.

6. Example of the Complex After Oedipus: The Oedipal Archetype Brave New World : John the Savage tries to protect his mother against all even though she does not deserve it. Harry Potter: Voldemort killed his absent muggle dad and then tries to kill all muggles . Hamlet : The bedroom scene http:// tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OedipusComplex