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{{Short description|Idea in psychoanalysis}}
[[File:IngresOdipusAndSphinx.jpg|thumb|''[[Oedipus]] describes the riddle of the [[Sphinx]]'' by [[Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres]], c. 1805]]
In classical [[psychoanalysis|psychoanalytic theory]], the '''Oedipus complex''' is a son's sexual attitude towards his mother and concomitant hostility toward his father, first formed during the [[phallic stage]] of [[psychosexual development]]. A daughter's attitude of desire for her father and hostility toward her mother is referred to as the '''feminine''' (or '''female''') '''Oedipus complex'''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Oedipus complex |url=https://dictionary.apa.org/oedipus-complex |website=APA Dictionary of Psychology |publisher=American Psychological Association |access-date=4 September 2023}}</ref> The general concept was considered by [[Sigmund Freud]] in ''[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]'' (1899), although the term itself was introduced in his paper "A Special Type of Choice of Object Made by Men" (1910).<ref name="Humberto2012">{{cite book |editor-last=Nagera |editor-first=Humberto |chapter=Oedipus complex (pp. 64ff.) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_tcUbPPdf8AC&pg=PA64 |title=Basic Psychoanalytic Concepts on the Libido Theory |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_tcUbPPdf8AC |year=2012 |orig-date=1969 |publisher=Karnac Books |___location=London |isbn=978-1-781-81098-9}}</ref><ref name="LP">{{cite book |first1=Jean |last1=Laplanche |first2=Jean-Bertrand |last2=Pontalis |author-link1=Jean Laplanche |author-link2=Jean-Bertrand Pontalis |chapter=Oedipus complex (pp. 282ff.) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DCpokE8C2WgC&q=%22Oedipus+complex%22&pg=PA283 |title=The Language of Psycho-analysis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DCpokE8C2WgC |publisher=Karnac Books| ___location=London |year=1988 |edition=reprint, revised |orig-date=1973 |isbn=978-0-946-43949-2}}</ref>
Freud's ideas of [[castration anxiety]] and [[penis envy]] refer to the differences of the sexes in their experience of the Oedipus complex.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Freud Reader |last=Freud |first=Sigmund |date=1989 |publisher=W.W. Norton |editor-last=Gay |editor-first=Peter |isbn=0393026868 |edition=1st |___location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/freudreader00freu/page/664 664–665] |oclc=19125772 |url=https://archive.org/details/freudreader00freu/page/664 }}</ref> The complex is thought to persist into adulthood as an unconscious psychic structure which can assist in social adaptation but also be the cause of [[neurosis]]. According to sexual difference, a ''positive'' Oedipus complex refers to the child's sexual desire for the opposite-sex parent and aversion to the same-sex parent, while a ''negative'' Oedipus complex refers to the desire for the same-sex parent and aversion to the opposite-sex parent.<ref name="LP"/><ref name=Auchincloss>{{cite book | last=Auchincloss | first=Elizabeth | title=The Psychoanalytic Model of the Mind| year=2015 | publisher=American Psychiatric Publishing |page=110}}</ref><ref name=Auchincloss2>{{cite book | last=Auchincloss | first=Elizabeth | title=Psychoanalytic Terms and Concepts| year=2012 | publisher=American Psychoanalytic Association |page=180}}</ref> Freud considered that the child's [[Identification (psychology)|identification]] with the same-sex parent is the socially acceptable outcome of the complex. Failure to move on from the compulsion to satisfy a basic desire and to reconcile with the same-sex parent leads to neurosis.
The theory is named for the mythological figure [[Oedipus]], an ancient [[Thebes, Greece|Theban]] king who discovers he has unknowingly murdered his father and married his mother, whose depiction in [[Sophocles]]' ''[[Oedipus Rex]]'' had a profound influence on Freud. Freud rejected the term [[Electra complex]],<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |title=The language of psycho-analysis |last1=Laplanche |first1=Jean |date=1973 |publisher=W.W. Norton |last2=Pontalis |first2=J.B. |isbn=0393011054 |___location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/languageofpsycho00lapl/page/152 152] |oclc=741058 |url=https://archive.org/details/languageofpsycho00lapl/page/152 }}</ref> introduced by [[Carl Jung]] in 1913<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044020083374;view=1up;seq=7 |title=The Theory of Psychoanalysis |last=Jung |first=C. G. |series=Nervous and mental disease monograph series, no. 19 |date=1915 |publisher=Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing Co. |___location=New York |page=69}}</ref> as a proposed equivalent complex among young girls.<ref name=":2" />
Some critics have argued that Freud, by abandoning his earlier [[seduction theory]] (which attributed neurosis to childhood sexual abuse) and replacing it with the theory of the Oedipus complex, instigated a [[The Freudian Coverup|cover-up of sexual abuse]] of children. Some scholars and psychologists have criticized the theory for being incapable of applying to same-sex parents, and as being incompatible with the widespread [[Incest taboo|aversion to incest]].
==Background==
[[File:AmaliaFreud.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Sigmund Freud]] (age 16) with his mother in 1872<ref>Peter Gay (1995) ''[[Freud: A Life for Our Time]]''</ref>]]
''Oedipus'' refers to a 5th-century BC [[Greek mythology|Greek mythological]] character [[Oedipus]], who unknowingly kills his father, [[Laius]], and marries his mother, [[Jocasta]]. A play based on the myth, ''[[Oedipus Rex]]'', was written by [[Sophocles]], {{circa}} 429 BC.
Modern productions of Sophocles' play were staged in Paris and Vienna in the 19th century and were phenomenally successful in the 1880s and 1890s. The Austrian [[Neurology|neurologist]] [[Sigmund Freud]] (1856–1939) attended. In his book ''[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]'', first published in 1899, he proposes that an Oedipal desire is a universal psychological phenomenon innate ([[phylogenetics|phylogenetic]]) to human beings, and the cause of much unconscious guilt.
Freud believed that the Oedipal sentiment has been inherited through the millions of years it took for humans to evolve from apes.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Basic Freud: Psychoanalytic Thought for the 21st Century|last=Khan|first=Michael|publisher=Basic Books|year=2002|isbn=0-465-03715-1|___location=New York, NY|pages=60}}</ref> His view of its universality was based on his clinical observation of neurotic or normal children, his analysis of his own response to ''Oedipus Rex'', and on the fact that the play was effective on both ancient and modern audiences. Freud describes the [[Oedipus]] myth's timeless appeal thus:
<blockquote>His destiny moves us only because it might have been ours — because the Oracle laid the same curse upon us before our birth as upon him. It is the fate of all of us, perhaps, to direct our first sexual impulse towards our mother and our first hatred and our first murderous wish against our father. Our dreams convince us that this is so.<ref>Sigmund Freud ''The Interpretation of Dreams'' Chapter V "The Material and Sources of Dreams" (New York: Avon Books) p. 296.</ref></blockquote>
Freud also claims that the play ''[[Hamlet]]'' "has its roots in the same soil as ''Oedipus Rex''", and that the differences between the two plays are revealing: <blockquote>In [''Oedipus Rex''] the child's wishful fantasy that underlies it is brought into the open and realized as it would be in a dream. In ''Hamlet'' it remains repressed; and—just as in the case of a neurosis—we only learn of its existence from its inhibiting consequences.<ref>Freud, Sigmund. ''The Interpretation of Dreams''. Basic Books. 978-0465019779 (2010) page 282.</ref><ref>[http://www.psyartjournal.com/article/show/armstrong-oedipus_as_evidence_the_theatrical_backg Oedipus as Evidence: The Theatrical Background to Freud's Oedipus Complex] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130418115325/http://www.psyartjournal.com/article/show/armstrong-oedipus_as_evidence_the_theatrical_backg |date=2013-04-18 }} by Richard Armstrong, 1999</ref></blockquote>
However, in ''The Interpretation of Dreams'', Freud makes it clear that the "primordial urges and fears" that are his concern and the basis of the Oedipal complex are inherent in the myths the play is based on, not primarily in the play itself, which Freud refers to as a "further modification of the legend" that originates in a "misconceived secondary revision of the material, which has sought to exploit it for theological purposes".<ref>Freud, Sigmund. ''The Interpretation of Dreams''. Basic Books. 978-0465019779 (2010) page 247</ref><ref>Fagles, Robert, "Introduction". Sophocles. ''The Three Theban Plays''. Penguin Classics (1984) {{ISBN|978-0140444254}}. page 132</ref><ref>Dodds, E. R. "On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex". ''The Ancient Concept of Progress.'' Oxford Press. (1973) {{ISBN|978-0198143772}}. page 70</ref>
Before the idea of the Oedipus complex, Freud believed that childhood sexual trauma was the cause of neurosis. This idea, sometimes called [[Freud's seduction theory]], was deemphasized in favor of the Oedipus complex around 1897.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/488399 |last=Birken |first=Lawrence |title=From Seduction Theory to Oedipus Complex: A Historical Analysis |journal=New German Critique |number=43 |pages=83–96 |date=Winter 1988|doi=10.2307/488399 |jstor=488399 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
===Timeline===
* 1896. Freud publishes ''[[The Aetiology of Hysteria]]''. The paper was criticized for theorizing that hysteria is caused by sexual abuse.
* 1897–1909. After his father's death in 1896, and having seen the play ''[[Oedipus Rex]]'', by [[Sophocles]], Freud begins using the term "Oedipus". As Freud wrote in an 1897 letter, "I found in myself a constant love for my mother, and jealousy of my father. I now consider this to be a universal event in early childhood."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Freud |first1=Sigmund |last2=Masson |first2=J. Moussaieff |last3=Fliess |first3=Wilhelm |title=The complete letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess, 1887-1904 |date=1985 |publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |___location=Cambridge, Mass |isbn=9780674154209 |page=272}}</ref>
* 1909–1914. Proposes that Oedipal [[libido|desire]] is the "nuclear complex" of all neuroses; first usage of "Oedipus complex" in 1910.
* 1914–1918. Considers paternal and maternal [[incest]].
* 1919–1926. Complete Oedipus complex; [[identification (psychology)|identification]] and [[bisexuality]] are conceptually evident in later works.
* 1926–1931. Applies the Oedipal theory to religion and [[Social norm|custom]].
* 1931–1938. Investigates the "feminine Oedipus attitude" and "negative Oedipus complex"; later the "Electra complex".<ref>Bennett Simon, Rachel B. Blass "The development of vicissitudes of Freud's ideas on the Oedipus complex" in ''The Cambridge Companion to Freud'' ([[University of California Press]] 1991) p.000</ref>
==The Oedipus complex==
===Original formulation===
Freud's original examples of the Oedipus complex are applied only to boys or men; he never fully clarified his views on the nature of the complex in girls.<ref name="Coleman2014" /> He described the complex as a young boy's hatred or desire to eliminate his father and to have sex with his mother.
Freud introduced the term "Oedipus complex" in a 1910 article titled "A Special Type of Choice of Object Made by Men".<ref name="Coleman2014">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Oedipus complex |encyclopedia=A Dictionary of Psychology |edition=3rd |year=2014 |last=Colman |first=Andrew M. |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780191726828 |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100246932 |access-date=November 29, 2021 |doi=10.1093/acref/9780199534067.001.0001 |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Humberto2012" /> It appears in a section of this paper describing what happens after a boy first becomes aware of [[prostitution]]:
{{Blockquote
|text=When after this he can no longer maintain the doubt which makes his parents an exception to the universal and odious norms of sexual activity, he tells himself with cynical logic that the difference between his mother and a whore is not after all so very great, since basically they do the same thing. The enlightening information he has received has in fact awakened the memory-traces of the impressions and wishes of his early infancy, and these have led to a reactivation in him of certain mental impulses. He begins to desire his mother herself in the sense with which he has recently become acquainted, and to hate his father anew as a rival who stands in the way of this wish; he comes, as we say, under the dominance of the Oedipus complex. He does not forgive his mother for having granted the favour of sexual intercourse not to himself but to his father, and he regards it as an act of unfaithfulness.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Freud |first1=Sigmund |date= |title=A Special Type of Choice of Object Made by Men |url=https://icpla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Freud-S.-1910.-A-Special-Type-of-Choice-of-Object-made-by-Men-Contributions-to-the-Psychology-of-Love-I-Volume-XI-1910-163-176..pdf |access-date=November 29, 2021}}</ref>
}}
Freud and others eventually extended this idea and embedded it in a larger body of theory.
=== Later theory ===
[[File:Oedipus and the Sphinx MET DP-14201-023.jpg|thumb|upright|''Oedipus and the Sphinx'', by [[Gustave Moreau]] (1864)]]
In classical [[Psychoanalysis|psychoanalytic]] theory, the Oedipus complex occurs during the [[phallic stage]] of [[psychosexual development]] (age 3–6 years), although it can manifest at an earlier age.<ref name="JosephChilders">Joseph Childers, Gary Hentzi eds. ''Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism'' (New York: [[Columbia University Press]], 1995)</ref><ref>Charles Rycroft ''A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis'' (London, 2nd ed., 1995)</ref>
In the phallic stage, a boy's decisive psychosexual experience is the Oedipus complex—his son–father competition for possession of his mother. It is in this third stage of psychosexual development that the child's genitalia is his or her primary [[erogenous zone]]; thus, when children become aware of their bodies, the bodies of other children, and the bodies of their parents, they gratify physical curiosity by undressing and exploring themselves, each other, and their genitals, so learning the [[Human body|anatomic]] differences between male and female and the [[gender]] differences between boy and girl.
Despite the mother being the parent who primarily gratifies the child's [[Libido|desires]], the child begins forming a discrete sexual identity—"boy", "girl"—that alters the dynamics of the parent and child relationship; the parents become objects of infantile [[Libido|libidinal]] energy. The boy directs his libido (psychic energy) toward his mother and directs jealousy and emotional rivalry against his father. The boy's desire for his mother is concomitant with a desire for the death of his father and even an impulse to instigate that death. These desires manifest in the realm of the [[Id, ego and super-ego|id]], governed by the [[Pleasure principle (psychology)|pleasure principle]], but the pragmatic [[Ego (Freudian)|ego]], governed by the [[reality principle]], knows that the father is an impossible rival to overcome and the impulse is [[Repression (psychoanalysis)|repressed]]. The boy's ambivalence about his father's place in the family, is manifested as [[castration anxiety|fear of castration]] by the physically superior father; the fear is an irrational, subconscious manifestation of the infantile id.<ref>Allan Bullock, Stephen Trombley ''The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought'' (London:Harper Collins 1999) pp. 607, 705</ref>
In both sexes, [[defense mechanism]]s provide transitory resolutions of the conflict between the drives of the id and the drives of the ego. [[Psychological repression|Repression]], the blocking of unacceptable ideas and impulses from the conscious mind, is the first defence mechanism, but its action does not resolve the id–ego conflict; it merely confines the impulse in the unconscious, where it continues to exert pressure in the direction of consciousness. The second defense mechanism is [[Identification (psychology)|identification]], in which the child adapts by incorporating, into his or her (super)ego, the personality characteristics of the same-sex parent. In the case of the boy, this diminishes his [[castration anxiety]], because his likeness to his father protects him from the consequences of their rivalry. The little girl's anxiety is diminished in her identification with the mother, who understands that neither of them possesses a penis, and thus are not antagonists.<ref>Allan Bullock, Stephen Trombley ''The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought'' (London:Harper Collins 1999) pp. 205, 107</ref>
The satisfactory resolution of the Oedipus complex is considered important in developing the male infantile [[Id, ego and super-ego|super-ego]]. By identifying with the father, the boy [[Internalization (psychology)|internalizes]] social [[morality]], thereby potentially becoming a voluntary, self-regulating follower of societal rules, rather than merely reflexively complying out of fear of punishment. Unresolved son–father competition for the psychosexual possession of the mother might result in a [[phallic stage]] [[Fixation (psychology)|fixation]] that leads to the boy becoming an aggressive, over-ambitious, and vain man.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mcleod |first=Saul |date=January 16, 2024 |title=Freud's Psychosexual Theory And 5 Stages Of Human Development |url=https://www.simplypsychology.org/psychosexual.html |access-date=March 14, 2024 |website=Simply Psychology}}</ref>
===Oedipal case study===<!-- This section is linked from [[Sigmund Freud]] -->
In ''Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-year-old Boy'' (1909), the case study of the [[Equinophobia|equinophobic]] boy "[[Herbert Graf|Little Hans]]", Freud claimed that the relation between Hans's fears—of horses and of his father—derived from external factors, the birth of a sister, and internal factors, the desire of the infantile id to replace his father as companion to his mother, and [[guilt (emotion)|guilt]] for enjoying the [[masturbation]] normal to a boy of his age. Little Hans himself was unable to relate his fear of horses to his fear of his father. As the treating [[Psychoanalysis|psychoanalyst]], Freud noted that "Hans had to be told many things that he could not say himself" and that "he had to be presented with thoughts, which he had, so far, shown no signs of possessing".<ref>Frank Cioffi (2005) "Sigmund Freud" entry ''The Oxford Guide to Philosophy'' [[Oxford University Press]]:New York pp. 323–324</ref>
===Feminine Oedipus attitude===
Freud applied the Oedipus complex to the [[psychosexual development]] of boys and girls, but later modified the female aspects of the theory as "feminine Oedipus attitude" and "negative Oedipus complex".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Freud |first1=Sigmund |title=Some Psychological Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction between the Sexes |url=https://www.aquestionofexistence.com/Aquestionofexistence/Problems_of_Gender/Entries/2011/8/28_Sigmund_Freud_files/Freud%20Some%20Psychological%20Consequences%20of%20the%20Anatomical%20Distinction%20between%20the%20Sexes.pdf |website=questionofexistence.com |publisher=International Journal of Psychoanalysis |access-date=10 July 2023}}</ref> His student–collaborator [[Carl Jung]], in his 1913 work ''The Theory of Psychoanalysis'', proposed the [[Electra complex]] to describe a girl's daughter–mother competition for psychosexual possession of the father.<ref name=":3" /><ref name="www.credoreference.com">{{cite web |url=http://search.credoreference.com/content/topic/freud_sigmund_1856_1939?searchId=67d623b9-ceca-11e4-9c20-0aea1e24c1ac |title=Freud, Sigmund (1856-1939) |publisher=credoreference.com |access-date=20 March 2015}}</ref>
In the [[phallic stage]], the feminine Oedipus attitude is the little girl's decisive [[Psychodynamics|psychodynamic]] experience in forming a discrete sexual identity ([[Ego (Freudian)|ego]]). Whereas a boy develops [[castration anxiety]], a girl develops [[penis envy]], for she perceives that she has been castrated previously (and missing the penis), and so forms resentment towards her own kind as inferior, while simultaneously striving to claim her father's penis through bearing a male child of her own. Furthermore, after the phallic stage, the girl's psychosexual development includes transferring her primary erogenous zone from the infantile [[clitoris]] to the adult [[vagina]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Freud Reader |last=Freud |first=Sigmund |date=1989 |publisher=W.W. Norton |editor-last=Gay |editor-first=Peter |isbn=0393026868 |edition=1st |___location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/freudreader00freu/page/664 664–665, 674–676] |oclc=19125772 |url=https://archive.org/details/freudreader00freu/page/664 }}</ref>
Freud considered a girl's negative Oedipus complex to be more emotionally intense than that of a boy, resulting, potentially, in a woman of submissive, insecure personality.<ref>Allan Bullock, Stephen Trombley ''The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought'' Harper Collins:London (1999) pp. 259, 705</ref>
==Freudian theoretic revision==
===Carl Gustav Jung===
[[File:Electra and Orestes - Project Gutenberg eText 14994.png|thumb|right|The Electra complex: the [[matricide]]s Electra and Orestes.]]
In response to Freud's proposal of the Oedipus complex, which was initially more focused on the little boy's experience of desire for the mother and jealous rivalry in relation of the father, student–collaborator [[Carl Jung]] proposed that girls experienced desire for the father and aggression towards the mother via what he called the [[Electra complex]].<ref name=":3"/> [[Electra]] was a Greek mythologic figure who plotted [[Matricide|matricidal]] revenge with [[Orestes]], her brother, against their mother [[Clytemnestra]] and their stepfather [[Aegisthus]], for the murder of her father [[Agamemnon]]. Like Oedipus, the character is the subject of a play by Sophocles ([[Electra (Sophocles play)|Electra]]) from the 5th century BC.<ref>Murphy, Bruce (1996). ''Benét's Reader's Encyclopedia'' Fourth edition, HarperCollins Publishers:New York p. 310</ref><ref>Bell, Robert E. (1991) ''Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary'' Oxford University Press:California pp.177–78</ref><ref>Hornblower, S., Spawforth, A. (1998) ''The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization'' pp. 254–55</ref> Orthodox Jungian psychology uses the term "Oedipus complex" only to denote a boy's psychosexual development. Freud himself rejected the equivalence, arguing that at this stage of development it is only the male who experiences a simultaneous love for one parent and competitive hatred for the other. For Freud, the idea of the Electra complex assumes an analogous relation between boys and girls, in relation to their same and opposite sex parents, that does not actually exist. According to Freud, the Electra complex fails to take account of the differing effects of the castration complex, and the significance of the [[phallus]], in the two sexes, and overlooks the girl's preoedipal attachment to the mother.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Laplanche |first1=Jean |last2=Pontalis |first2=J.B. |title=The Language of Psychoanalysis |date=1974 |publisher=Norton |___location=New York |page=152}}</ref>
===Otto Rank===
[[File:Freud and other psychoanalysts 1922.jpg|thumb|upright=1| [[Otto Rank]] on the far left, behind [[Sigmund Freud]], and other psychoanalysts (1922).]]
In classical [[Ego psychology|Freudian psychology]] the [[Id, ego and super-ego|super-ego]], "the heir to the Oedipus complex", is formed as the infant boy [[Internalization (psychology)|internalizes]] the familial rules of his father. In contrast, in the early 1920s, using the term "pre-Oedipal", [[Otto Rank]] proposed that a boy's powerful mother was the source of the super-ego, in the course of normal [[psychosexual development]]. Rank's theoretic conflict with Freud excluded him from the Freudian inner circle; nonetheless, he later developed the [[Psychodynamics|psychodynamic]] [[Object relations theory]] in 1925.
===Melanie Klein===
Whereas Freud proposed that the father (the paternal phallus) was central to infantile and adult psychosexual development, [[Melanie Klein]] concentrated on the early maternal relationship, proposing that Oedipal manifestations are perceptible in the first year of life, the [[oral stage]]. Her proposal was part of the "[[controversial discussions]]" (1942–44) at the British Psychoanalytical Association. The Kleinian psychologists proposed that "underlying the Oedipus complex, as Freud described it ... there is an earlier layer of more primitive relationships with the Oedipal couple".<ref>Richard Appignanesi ed. ''Introducing Melanie Klein'' (Cambridge 2006) p. 173</ref> She assigned "dangerous destructive tendencies not just to the father but also to the mother in her discussion of the child's projective fantasies".<ref name=":0" /> Klein's concept of the [[depressive position]], resulting from the infant's ambivalence toward the mother, lessened the central importance of the Oedipus complex in psychosexual development.<ref>Charles Rycroft ''A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis''
(London, 2nd Edn, 1995)</ref><ref>Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995)</ref>
===Wilfred Bion===
"For the post-[[Melanie Klein|Kleinian]] [[Wilfred Bion|Bion]], the myth of Oedipus concerns investigatory curiosity—the quest for knowledge—rather than sexual difference; the other main character in the Oedipal drama becomes [[Tiresias]] (the false hypothesis erected against [[anxiety]] about a new theory)".<ref>Mary Jacobus, ''The Poetics of Psychoanalysis'' (London 2005) p. 259</ref> As a result, "Bion regarded the central crime of Oedipus as his insistence on knowing the truth at all costs".<ref>Michael Parsons ''The Dove that Returns, the Dove that Vanishes'' (London 2000) p. 45</ref>
===Jacques Lacan===
[[Jacques Lacan]] argued against removing the Oedipus complex from the center of psychosexual developmental experience. For him, the Oedipus complex "—in so far as we continue to recognize it as covering the whole field of our experience with its signification—may be said to mark the limits that our discipline assigns to subjectivity".<ref>Jacques Lacan, ''Ecrits: A Selection'' (London 1997) p. 66</ref> It is that which superimposes the kingdom of culture upon the person, marking his or her introduction to the [[The Symbolic|symbolic order]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Introduction to Jacques Lacan, Module on Psychosexual Development |url=https://www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/english/theory/psychoanalysis/lacandevelop.html#:~:text=The%20process%20of%20moving%20through,to%20%22others.%22%20In%20this |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=www.cla.purdue.edu}}</ref>
Thus "a child learns what [[Power (philosophy)|power]] independent of itself is as it goes through the Oedipus complex ... encountering the existence of a symbolic system independent of itself".<ref>Ian Parker, ''Japan in Analysis'' (Basingstoke 2008) pp. 82–83</ref> Moreover, Lacan's proposal that "the ternary relation of the Oedipus complex" liberates the "prisoner of the dual relationship" of the son–mother relationship proved useful to later psychoanalysts;<ref>Jacques Lacan, ''Ecrits'' pp. 218, 182</ref> thus, for [[Bollas]], the "achievement" of the Oedipus complex is that the "child comes to understand something about the oddity of possessing one's own [[mind]] ... discovers the multiplicity of points of view".<ref>Adam Phillips ''On Flirtation'' (London 1994) p. 159</ref> Likewise, for Ronald Britton, "if the link between the parents perceived in love and hate can be tolerated in the child's mind ... this provides us with a capacity for seeing us in interaction with others, and ... for reflecting on ourselves, whilst being ourselves".<ref>Ivan Wood ''On a Darkling Plain: Journey into the Unconscious'' (Cambridge 2002) "Ronald Britton" entry p. 118</ref> As such, in ''The Dove that Returns, the Dove that Vanishes'' (2000), Michael Parsons proposed that such a perspective permits viewing "the Oedipus complex as a life-long developmental challenge ... [with] new kinds of Oedipal configurations that belong to later life".<ref>Michael Parsons ''The Dove that Returns, the Dove that Vanishes'' (London 2000) p. 4</ref>
In 1920, [[Sigmund Freud]] wrote that "with the progress of [[Psychoanalysis|psychoanalytic]] studies the importance of the Oedipus complex has become, more and more, clearly evident; its recognition has become the ''shibboleth'' that distinguishes the adherents of psychoanalysis from its opponents";<ref>Freud, ''Sexuality'' pp. 149-50nn</ref> thereby it remained a theoretic cornerstone of psychoanalysis until about 1930, when psychoanalysts began investigating the pre-Oedipal son–mother relationship within the theory of [[psychosexual development]].<ref>Charles Rycroft ''A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis''
(London, 2nd Ed., 1995)</ref><ref>''Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995) p. 119</ref> Janet Malcolm reports that by the late 20th century, to the object relations psychology "[[avant-garde]], the events of the Oedipal period are pallid and inconsequential, in comparison with the cliff-hanging [[psychodrama]]s of infancy. ... For [[Heinz Kohut|Kohut]], as for [[Donald Winnicott|Winnicott]] and [[Michael Balint|Balint]], the Oedipus complex is an irrelevance in the treatment of severe [[psychopathology|pathology]]".<ref>Janet Malcolm, ''Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession'' (London 1988) pp. 35, 136</ref> Nonetheless, [[ego psychology]] continued to maintain that "the Oedipal period—roughly three-and-a-half to six years—is like [[Konrad Lorenz|Lorenz]] standing in front of the chick, it is the most formative, significant, moulding experience of human life ... If you take a person's adult life—his love, his work, his hobbies, his ambitions—they all point back to the Oedipus complex".<ref>Janet Malcolm, ''Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession'' (London 1988), "Aaron Green", pp. 158–59 [https://books.google.com/books?id=5_9492Mhn_IC&q=Malcolm,+Psychoanalysis:+The+Impossible+Profession+Aaron+Green%22,]</ref>
==Criticism==
=== Lack of empirical basis ===
Studies conducted of children's attitudes to parents at the oedipal stage do not demonstrate the shifts
in positive feelings that are predicted by the theory.<ref>{{cite book |title=Psychoanalytic Theories: Perspectives from Developmental Psychopathology |publisher=Whurr Publishers |year=2006 |first1=Peter |last1=Fonagy |first2=Mary |last2=Target |isbn= 9781861562395 |oclc= 749483878 }}</ref> Case studies that Freud relied upon, such as the case of Little Hans, could not be verified through research or experimentation on a larger population.<ref name="Wolpe1960">{{cite journal |url=https://journals.lww.com/jonmd/Citation/1960/08000/PSYCHOANALYTIC__EVIDENCE___A_CRITIQUE_BASED_ON.7.aspx
|last1=Wolpe |first1=Joseph |last2=Rachman |first2=Stanley |title=Psychoanalytic "evidence": A critique based on Freud's case of little Hans |journal=The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease |volume=131 |issue=2 |pages=135–148 |doi=10.1097/00005053-196008000-00007 |year=1960 |pmid=13786442 |s2cid=6276699 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Adolf Grünbaum]] argues that the type of evidence Freud and his followers used, the clinical productions of patients during analytic treatment, by their nature cannot provide cogent observational support for Freud's core hypotheses.<ref name="Grünbaum2012">{{cite web |title=Testing Freud: Adolf Grünbaum On The Scientific Standing Of Psychoanalysis |first=Charles |last=Carlini |date=December 19, 2012 |website=Simply Charly |url=https://www.simplycharly.com/interviews/testing-freud-adolf-grunbaum-scientific-standing-psychoanalysis/ }}</ref>
Evolutionary psychologists [[Martin Daly (professor)|Martin Daly]] and [[Margo Wilson]], in their 1988 book ''Homicide'', argue that the Oedipus complex theory yields few [[Testability|testable]] predictions. They find no evidence of the Oedipus complex in people. There is evidence of [[Parent–offspring conflict|parent–child conflict]] but it is not for sexual possession of the opposite sex-parent.<ref>Martin Daly, Margo Wilson ''Homicide'' (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1988).</ref>
According to psychiatrist [[Jeffrey Lieberman]], Freud and his followers resisted subjecting his theories, including the Oedipus theory, to scientific testing and verification.<ref name="Lieberman2016">[https://think.kera.org/2016/02/08/the-science-of-psychiatry/ The History of Psychiatry] (interview with Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman)</ref> Lieberman claims that investigations based in [[cognitive psychology]] either contradict or fail to support Freud's ideas.<ref name="Lieberman2016" />
=== Cover for sexual abuse ===
In the 1970s, social worker [[Florence Rush]] wrote that [[Freud's seduction theory]], which came early in his career, correctly attributed his patients' memories of childhood trauma to the patient's family, often the father, implying that widespread sexual abuse of children by parents was common in his society. According to Rush, the discovery of this abuse made Freud uncomfortable, so he abandoned the theory and invented the Oedipus complex to replace it. The Oedipus complex allowed him to attribute stories of childhood sexual abuse to the children themselves. Freud came to the conclusion that the stories were fantasies of hidden desires, rather than factual descriptions of trauma. Thus, Rush argues, Freud covered up illegal and immoral sexual abuse by undermining the perceptions of his patients, particularly his female patients.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GXgDjnFL2xcC |title=The Best-kept Secret Sexual Abuse of Children |first=Florence |last=Rush |year=1992 |pages=83–92 |publisher=Human Services Institute|isbn=9780830639076 }}</ref> Rush's theory became known as [[The Freudian Coverup]].
A director of the [[Sigmund Freud Archives]], [[Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson]], adopted the view that Freud's work was a [[The Freudian Coverup|cover-up of sexual abuse]] of children after reading Freud's unpublished letters. In his book ''[[The Assault on Truth]]'', Masson argues that Freud misattributed accounts of sexual abuse to fabrications and fantasies of children because, for personal reasons, he was unable to accept that the accounts were real. According to Masson, among Freud's reasons to suppress the abuse was that he did not want to be confronted by the father of a patient who was accused of committing abuse. Late in his career Freud sought to prevent colleague [[Sandor Ferenczi]] from delivering a paper that reasserted the seduction theory. Freud had hoped that his former student would abandon the theory as he himself had done, but Ferenczi delivered the paper in 1932.<ref name="Blumenthal1984">{{cite news |work=The New York Times |title=Freud: secret documents reveal years of strife |date=January 24, 1984 |last=Blumenthal |first=Ralph |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/24/science/freud-secret-documents-reveal-years-of-strife.html}}</ref> Masson writes that, because the theory of the Oedipus complex became widely popular, psychoanalysts continue to do damage to their patients by doubting the reality of the patient's early memories of trauma.
Other Freud scholars argue that Masson and Rush have misrepresented the reasons and intention behind Freud's abandonment of the seduction theory and adoption of the theory of the Oedipus complex. According to Dr. [[Kurt R. Eissler]], who replaced Masson as director of the Freud Archives, Freud did not in any sense reject the reality of childhood sexual trauma, but realized that actual abuse was not the universal cause of neurosis he had thought it to be.<ref name="Blumenthal1984" /> New York psychiatrist Dr. Frank R. Hartmann said that "Freud realized he made a mistake in attributing all neurosis to repressed memories of actual abuse. He discovered a much broader theory which explained much more."<ref name="Blumenthal1984" /> The historian [[Peter Gay]], author of ''[[Freud: A Life for Our Time]]'' (1988), emphasizes that Freud continued to believe that some patients were sexually abused, but realized that there can be a difficulty in distinguishing between truth and fiction. Therefore, according to Gay, there was no sinister motive in changing his theory; Freud was a scientist seeking the facts and was entitled to change his views if new evidence was presented to him.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gay |first=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lVdU8yNRLN8C&q=Peter+Gay,+author+of+Freud:+A+Life+for+Our+Time+(1988) |title=Freud: A Life for Our Time |date=17 June 2006 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-32861-5 |language=en}}</ref>
=== Gender role assumptions ===
Many scholars and psychologists observe that, because the theory of the Oedipus complex assigns distinct roles to a mother and father, it is a poor fit for families that do not use traditional gender roles.
As of January 2025 [[same-sex marriage]] is legal in 37 nations.<ref>{{cite web |title=Marriage Equality Around the World |url=https://www.hrc.org/resources/marriage-equality-around-the-world |website=Human Rights Campaign|access-date=13 January 2025}}</ref> Same-sex couples start families through adoption or surrogacy. The pillars of the family structure are diversifying to include parents who are single or of the same sex as their partner along with the traditional heterosexual, married parents. These new family structures pose new questions for the psychoanalytic theories such as the Oedipus complex that require the presence of the mother and the father in the successful development of a child.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Shenkman|first=Geva|date=March 23, 2015|title=Classic psychoanalysis and male same-sex parents: A reexamination of basic concepts.|journal=Psychoanalytic Psychology|volume=33|issue=4|pages=585–598|doi=10.1037/a0038486}}</ref>
Evidence suggests children who have been raised by parents of the same sex are not much different from children raised in a traditional family structure.<ref name=":0" /> The classic theory of the Oedipal drama has fallen out of favor in today's society, according to a study by Drescher, having been criticized for its "negative implications" towards same sex parents.<ref name=":0" /> Many psychoanalytic thinkers such as Chodorow and Corbett are working towards changing the Oedipus complex to eliminate "automatic associations among sex, gender, and the stereotypical psychological functions deriving from these categories" and make it applicable to today's modern society.<ref name=":0" /> From its Freudian conception, psychoanalysis and its theories have always relied on traditional gender roles to draw itself out.
In the 1950s, psychologists distinguished different roles in parenting for the mother and father. The role of primary caregiver is assigned to the mother. Motherly love was considered to be unconditional. While the father is assigned the role of secondary caregiver, fatherly love is conditional, responsive to the child's tangible achievements.<ref name=":0" /> The Oedipus complex is compromised in the context of modern family structures, as it requires the existence of the notions of masculinity and femininity.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Schwartz|first=David|date=Winter 1999|title=Is a gay Oedipus a Trojan horse? Commentary on Lewes's 'A special Oedipal mechanism in the development of male homosexuality.'|journal=Psychoanalytic Psychology|volume=16|pages=88–93|doi=10.1037/0736-9735.16.1.88}}</ref> When there is no father present there is no reason for a boy to have castration anxiety and thus resolve the complex.<ref name=":0" /> Psychoanalysis presents non-heteronormative relationships a sort of perversion or fetish rather than a natural occurrence.<ref name=":1" /> To some psychologists, this emphasis on gender norms can be a distraction in treating homosexual patients.<ref name=":1" />
The 1972 book ''[[Anti-Oedipus]]'' by [[Gilles Deleuze]] and [[Félix Guattari]] is "a critique of psychoanalytic normativity and Oedipus" according to [[Didier Eribon]].<ref>Didier Eribon, "Échapper à la psychanalyse", [[Éditions Léo Scheer]], 2005, p.14</ref> Eribon criticizes the Oedipus complex described by Freud or Lacan as an "implausible ideological construct" which is an "inferiorization process of homosexuality".<ref name="Didier Eribon 1999">Didier Eribon, Réflexions sur la question gay, Paris, Fayard, 1999. ({{ISBN|2213600988}}), p.129</ref> According to psychologist Geva Shenkman, "To examine the application of concepts such as Oedipus complex and primal scene to male same-sex families, we must first eliminate the automatic associations among sex, gender, and the stereotypical psychological functions based on these categories."<ref name=":0" />
[[Postmodern psychology|Postmodern psychoanalytic]] theories, which aim to reestablish psychoanalysis for modern times, suggest modifying or discarding the complex because it does not describe newer family structures. Shenkman suggests that a loose interpretation of the Oedipus complex in which the child seeks sexual satisfaction from any parent regardless of [[gender or sex]], would be helpful: "From this perspective, any parental authority, or institution for that matter, may represent the taboo that gives rise to the complex". Psychoanalyst [[Melanie Klein]] proposed a theory which broke gender stereotypes but still kept traditional father-mother family structure. She assigned "dangerous destructive tendencies not just to the father but also to the mother in her discussion of the child's projective fantasies".<ref name=":0" />
=== Stretched theory ===
[[Anouchka Grose]] understands the Oedipus complex as "a way of explaining how human beings are [[Socialization|socialised]] ... learning to deal with [[Suffering|disappointment]]".<ref name="autogenerated1232">Anouchka Grose ''No More Silly Love Songs'' (London, 2010) p. 123</ref> Her summary of the complex is "You have to stop trying to be everything for your primary carer, and get on with being something for the rest of the world".<ref>Anouchka Grose ''No More Silly Love Songs'' (London, 2010) p. 124</ref> This post-[[Jacques Lacan|Lacanian]] interpretation of the complex diverges considerably from its description in 19th century. Eribon writes that it "stretches the Oedipus complex to a point where it almost doesn't look like Freud's any more".<ref name="Didier Eribon 1999"/>
=== Aversion to incest ===
Parent-child and sibling-sibling incestuous unions are almost universally forbidden.<ref>The Tapestry of Culture An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Ninth Edition, Abraham Rosman, Paula G. Rubel, Maxine Weisgrau, 2009, AltaMira Press, page 101</ref> An explanation for this [[incest taboo]] is that rather than instinctual sexual desire, there is instinctual sexual aversion against these unions (See [[Westermarck effect]]). [[Steven Pinker]] wrote that "The idea that boys want to sleep with their mothers strikes most men as the silliest thing they have ever heard. Obviously, it did not seem so to Freud, who wrote that as a boy he once had an erotic reaction to watching his mother dressing. Of note is that [[Amalia Freud|Amalia Nathansohn Freud]] was relatively young during Freud's childhood and thus of reproductive age, and Freud having a [[Wet nurse|wet-nurse]], may not have experienced the early intimacy that would have tipped off his perceptual system that Mrs. Freud was his mother."<ref>{{Cite book|title=How the mind works|author=Pinker, Steven|date=1997|publisher=Norton|isbn=9780393045352|___location=New York|oclc=36379708|url=https://archive.org/details/howmindworks00pink}}</ref>
=== Ethnocentrism ===
====Bourdieu====
In ''Esquisse pour une autoanalyse'', [[Pierre Bourdieu]] argues that the success of the concept of Oedipus is inseparable from the prestige associated with ancient Greek culture and the relations of domination that are reinforced in the use of this myth. In other words, if Oedipus was [[Bantu peoples|Bantu]] or [[Baoulé people|Baoulé]], his story would probably not be viewed as a human universal. This remark recalls the historically and socially situated character of the founder of psychoanalysis.<ref>Pierre Bourdieu, "Esquisse pour une auto-analyse", raisons d'agir, 2004</ref>
====Malinowski====
''[[Sex and Repression in Savage Society]]'' is considered "a famous critique of psychoanalysis, arguing that the 'Oedipus complex' described by Freud is not universal."<ref name="connell">Connell, R. W. (2002). ''Gender'', p. 122. Wiley-Blackwell, {{ISBN|978-0-7456-2716-8}}</ref>
=== Sexism ===
[[Feminist views on the Oedipus complex]] include criticism of the [[phallocentrism]] of the theory by philosopher [[Luce Irigaray]] among others. Irigaray charges that Freud's work assumes a masculine perspective, epitomized by the centrality of the penis (or lack of a penis for girls) in the Oedipus complex. She thinks that Freud's desire for a neat, symmetrical theory leads him to a contrived understanding of women as inverse men. She charges that he does not explore mother–daughter relationships and that he dogmatically assumes female sexuality will be a perfect mirror of male sexuality.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Psychoanalytic Feminism |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |date=May 16, 2011 |publisher=Stanford University |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-psychoanalysis/#Iri |access-date=November 29, 2021 }}</ref>
==See also==
{{Columns-list|colwidth=22em|
* [[
* [[
* [[Feminist views on the Oedipus complex]]
* [[
* [[Madonna–whore complex]]
* [[Polymorphous perversity]]
}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==Further reading==
*Britton, Ronald. "The missing link: parental sexuality in the Oedipus complex." ''In The gender conundrum'', pp. 91–104. Routledge, 2003.
*Britton, Ronald, Michael Feldman, and Edna O’Shaughnessy. "The Oedipus complex today." London: Karnac (1989).
*Friedman, Richard C., and Jennifer I. Downey. "Biology and the oedipus complex." ''The Psychoanalytic Quarterly'' 64, no. 2 (1995): 234–264.
*Green, André. ''The Tragic Effect: The Oedipus Complex in Tragedy.'' United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
*Klein, Melanie. "The Oedipus complex in the light of early anxieties (1945)." In ''The Oedipus complex today'', pp. 11–82. Routledge, 2018.
*Loewald, Hans W. "The waning of the Oedipus complex." ''Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association'' 27, no. 4 (1979): 751–775.
*M. Fear, Rhona. ''The Oedipus Complex: Solutions Or Resolutions?.'' United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, 2018.
*Parsons, Anne. "Is the Oedipus complex universal." Psychological anthropology: A reader on self in culture 131 (2010).
*Rudnytsky, Peter L.. ''Freud and Oedipus.'' United States: Columbia University Press, 1987.
*Ullrich, Burkhard., Zepf, Siegfried., Seel, Dietmar., Zepf, Florian Daniel. ''Oedipus and the Oedipus Complex: A Revision.'' N.p.: Taylor & Francis, 2018.
*Simon, Bennett. "“Incest—see under oedipus complex”: The history of an error in psychoanalysis." ''Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association'' 40, no. 4 (1992): 955-988.
*Smadja, Éric. ''The Oedipus Complex: Focus of the Psychoanalysis-Anthropology Debate.'' United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, 2017.
*''The Oedipus Complex - A Selection of Classic Articles on Sigmund Freud's Psychoanalytical Theory''. N.p.: Read Books, 2011.
*[[Liliane Weissberg|Weissberg, Liliane]] (ed.), ''Psychoanalysis, Fatherhood, and the Modern Family''. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2021.
* Günter Rebing: "''Aber so arbeitet nun einmal das Genie". Wie der Ödipuskomplex erfunden wurde''. In: ''Sinn und Form'' 73 (2021), Heft 6, pp. 837–843
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