The article “Some Psychological Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction between the Sexes” by Sigmund Freud focus on the difference between boys and girls and the consequences and impact the Oedipus complex and Penis envy. Freud studies the consequences and how boy and girls develop and move forward from this phase. It is to say that Freud has a strong point of view about this, and somehow this theory can come as masochism and has been criticizes by many feminist; but I cannot ignore the complexity and how his ideas are proper. But can we used this theories to understand the modernity if the society we live in. The Oedipus complex came to my knowledge in my first semester of college, during my English class as we study Greek mythology. The first time I read the story I took it as it was; a story. But later on, on my first psychology class I finally understood the complexity of it and how it was used. Even now after a few more classes on psychology I still have some disagreements and have a hard time accepting it. It is because of my background that I’m facing challenges with t...
What makes Oedipus very interesting is that in times of trouble, he discovers the truth of understanding by using Plato’s four stages of awareness, the audience can see Oedipus’s path to enlightenment which causes his downfall. This begins with imagination, advances to belief, continues to thoughts and reason and the truth understanding and awareness. Life can be very challenging if you don’t know the truth and try to find it out without the four steps.
The concept of womb envy-- envy of the procreative power of women (Kittay 126)-- has been virtually ignored by both psychoanalysts and literary critics since Bruno Bettelheim first introduced the idea. Though intended as a supplement to the concepts of penis envy and the Oedipal complex developed by Freud, womb envy has not generated the attention that penis envy has. This may in part be due to Freud's interpretation of the desires of the males in his case study to bear children as be "anal, autoerotic, or homosexual" in nature. (Kittay 127). Since Freud ignored the possibility of men's envy of women's childbirthing abilities, most of his followers have as well.
Freud’s work has been criticised as being biased towards one gender and the focus of his theories that males are superior as they have a penis and females don’t is biased in favour of males.
Sigmund Freud was the first of six children to be born into his middle class, Jewish family. His father was a wool merchant, and was the provider for the family. From the time Freud was a child, he pondered theories in math, science, and philosophy, but in his teens, he took a deep interest in what he later called psychoanalysis. He wanted to discover how a person's mind works, so he began to explore the conscious and unconscious parts of one's psyche. Freud's parents and siblings were directly involved in allowing him to pursue this unexplored area of psychology. He was given his own room so that he could study his books in silence, and was only disturbed when it was time to eat. Freud eventually married Martha Bernays. She was cooperative and completely subservient to her husband. She was simply filling a role that the society during that time insisted was proper for all women. Freud himself derived his attitudes toward women and his beliefs about the roles of individual sexes from personal experiences in the strict culture of the time. In the middle to late eighteen hundreds, Central European society distinguished clearly between the roles of men and women. Cultural norms dictated that men be responsible for work outside of the home, and the financial well being of the family, while the women's responsibilities were in the home and with the children. With these specific gender roles came the assumption of male dominance and female submission. Females were pictured as serene, calm, creatures that were lucky to have the love and protection of their superior husbands. It is in this form of the family where most children first learn the meaning and practice of hierarchical, authoritarian rule. Here is where they l...
The myth of Oedipus is one of a man brought down by forces aligning against him. Over the years, different playwrights have interpreted his character in various fashions. In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Oedipus is a man who is blind to the path on which his questions take him and exemplifies the typical tyrannical leader in ancient times; in Senaca’s Oedipus, it is the fear of his questions that give Oedipus a greater depth of character, a depth he must overcome if he is to survive his ordeal.
The play "Oedipus Rex" is a very full and lively one to say the least. Everything a reader could ask for is included in this play. There is excitement, suspense, happiness, sorrow, and much more. Truth is the main theme of the play. Oedipus cannot accept the truth as it comes to him or even where it comes from. He is blinded in his own life, trying to ignore the truth of his life. Oedipus will find out that truth is rock solid. The story is mainly about a young man named Oedipus who is trying to find out more knowledge than he can handle. The story starts off by telling us that Oedipus has seen his moira, his fate, and finds out that in the future he will end up killing his father and marrying his mother. Thinking that his mother and father were Polybos and Merope, the only parents he knew, he ran away from home and went far away so he could change his fate and not end up harming his family. Oedipus will later find out that he cannot change fate because he has no control over it, only the God's can control what happens. Oedipus is a very healthy person with a strong willed mind who will never give up until he gets what he wants. Unfortunately, in this story these will not be good trait to have.
According to psychologist Sigmund Freud, who is known for his theory of psychoanalysis, the human mind contains “a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories” (Meyers 597). These unconscious desires then resurface and develop into the impulses for one’s actions and thoughts. Moreover, one of the most prominent and often times controversial ideas of this theory is the Oedipus complex. In Meyer’s textbook of psychology, the Oedipus complex is described as affecting young males by causing the development of sexual desires for their mothers and also jealousy towards their fathers
Freud believed that a human must go through certain stages in their lives or they will not socially develop to their full extent. He also made claims that a human is always struggling between their human, and instinctual nature. This was a very controversial topic because Freud concluded there was a lack of individuality of the human race. If Freud’s theory was the case then humans would have less of a choice in their life, and are truly slaves to their instinctual nature. While an intelligent figure of his time, I believe that Freud went in the wrong direction when approaching his theory. While humans do have a large amount of urges that he described, the person themselves can choose what to do based not solely on society, but their wants and needs as well. Had Freud been alive today I’m sure that his theory would have theorized much different things about the human nature. I think it is important to analyze the distinct cultural setting behi...
... self-awareness, ignorance, doubt, and awareness. The pain of loss and discovery that Oedipus must overcome eventually shape him into a more mature, humble, and humane character. This psychological journey from arrogant blindness to self-awareness and understanding models the journey each of us struggle with while trying to come to terms with the realities of our world an ourselves. Humans, of course, have not changed. When explaining the concept of Oedipal complexes, Sigmund Freud himself boldly stated, "The dream of having sexual intercourse with one's mother was as common then as it is today." And pride, just as much as delusions and desires, is a part of human nature we all must learn to manage so it does not blind us. Thus, the play Oedipus Rex still reveals some of the deepest psychological truths about human existence, over 2,000 years and civilizations later.
Freud emphasized that early childhood experiences are important to the development of the adult personality, proposing that childhood development took place over five stages; oral, anal. Phallic, latent and genital. The phallic stage is the most important stage which contains the Oedipus complex. This is where the child (age 4 - 6 yrs) posses the opposite sex parent and wants rid of the same sex parent. Freud argued that if the conflict is not resolved in childhood then it could cau...
Oedipus was willing to die to uncover the truth. Closure was needed for Oedipus the individual and Oedipus the king. Despite this need for closure, Oedipus remained blind to the clues in his path, plainly dismissing the ideas of other characters. Oedipus’ passion for knowledge was at least as strong as his blindness to the clues in his path. This blindness can be attributed to his pride. This pride gradually developed from h...
The Oedipus complex is a psychological theory that a child has a desire to replace his or her parent and be involved with them both sexually and emotionally; Paul displays this complex in The Rocking Horse Winner. “The father, who was always very handsome and expensive in tastes, seemed as if he never would be able to do anything worth doing.” The boy appears to have a desire to replace his father and support his mother due to his father’s lack of ability displayed; he feels he needs to provide for the family financially. The sexual desire of the Oedipus complex is also established because Paul’s
Sigmund Freud was one of the original pioneers in the field of Psychology. The work that he accomplished throughout his lifetime laid a foundation for many theorists after him. The theorists that worked in Psychology, after Freud, were able to form their own thoughts, ideas, and hypotheses about the human mind after learning from his work. Sigmund Freud’s major contribution in the field of Psychology was his theory about the human psyche; which he called the Id, the Ego, and the Super-Ego. This theory was based on the human personality and its formation. Many of Freud’s analysis strategies became common practice in the field of Psychology and are still used today. Sigmund Freud will always be one of the most influential figures in the
Freud’s psychosexual theory and Erikson’s psychosocial theory are two very renowned developmental concepts. Erikson was persuaded by Freud’s ideas but he elaborated on the theory differently.
In 1905 Sigmund Freud introduced his theory of psychosexual development, that is, five stages of an individual’s life from birth and onward, in order to explain how one develops and identifies with their own gender. Freud’s five stages: The Oral Stage, which takes place during approximately the first 18 months of a child’s life, where oral stimulation is the center fixation as an infant learns how to suckle and feed, the Anal Stage, which takes place anywhere from the first to the third year of a child’s life, where the individual begins to control bladder and bowel movements, the Phallic Stage, which usually takes place around age 3-7, where the child first becomes aware of their own genitalia, as well as begin to distinguish the difference between the male and female genders. This stage is where Freud also hypothesized the idea of the Oe...