The Complex: A Psychological Concept Of The Oedipus Complex

1525 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Oedipus complex in Literature

Skyler Crane Hon 101 Professor Joseph Atkins 23 September 2015 The Oedipus Complex The Oedipus complex is an interesting psychological concept. Sigmund Freud first started using the term “Oedipus complex” around 1910 referencing Oedipus Rex by ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles (Wikipedia.org). When introduced to society, the Oedipus complex was greeted by many people as somewhat controversial. The theory was expanded upon by Freud to include female children, as the original Oedipus complex only related to the male sex, by creating the term “feminine Oedipus attitude”, but the term would be forgotten for the most part since Carl Jung’s “Electra complex” was better received. (Wikipedia.org). Jung’s theory was eventually grouped together with …show more content…

To put it simply, the Oedipus complex attempts to explain the psychological processes that cause a male child to feel emotions of sexual desire towards a parent of the opposite sex (Wikipedia.org). The Oedipus complex, lesser known as the Oedipal complex, is reserved for male children; however, there is a female equivalent for the psychological theory. The female counterpart to the Oedipal complex was called the first devised by Carl Jung in 1913 and was dubbed the Electra complex. (Wikipedia.org). The Electra complex attempts to explain the psychosexual competition between a female child and her mother. It basically follows the same process as the Oedipus complex with a one of the few alterations between the two theories being the sex of the …show more content…

It is this struggle of feelings between love and hate that causes feelings of guilt to take hold in the child. Caught between two distinct emotions, the child will either continue to compete with the parent of the opposite sex or he or she will continue on to the next stage of the Oedipus or Electra complex. Assuming that the child continues to compete with the parent of the same sex, he or she would eventually withdraw their efforts once they realize that their rival is the preferred mate and focus their efforts on the next step in either of the two processes which is known as

Show More
Related

  • The Selfishness of Oedipus in Oedipus the King

    967 Words  | 2 Pages

    "Selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race,” as quoted by William E. Gladstone, supports my thought that selfishness is what causes most of our problems in the modern world. Currently, we are living in an era that is filled with much gluttony and selfishness. However, selfishness is a trait that all of us possess, but the amount of selfishness that we have can determine the type of person we are. For instance, parents should always put their children’s needs before their own. Selfish parents would rather buy materialistic items for themselves than anything useful for their children. In Sophocles’s “Oedipus Rex,” the protagonist is literally blinded by his own arrogance. This attitude begins before he even travels to Thebes, and that is apparent due to the circumstances of his father’s death. Oedipus seals his own fate with his egotistical attitude and he cannot change his destiny after everything is set into motion. During his journey on the road to enlightenment, Oedipus’s selfishness causes him to transcend from being completely ignorant of his fate to holding on to the last shreds of denial to having an overwhelming sense of realization.

    Read More

  • Unraveling the Oedipus Complex: Insights and Origins

    1552 Words  | 4 Pages

    The term “Oedipus complex” (or, less commonly, Oedipal complex), explains the strong emotions and ideas that the mind keeps deep within the unconscious of where a child, most notably male, is attracted to his own mother in a sexual nature. In society, incest is looked down upon because it crosses the forbidden zone, the desire for sexual relations, which deviates from the traditional parent-to-child relationship. This term was coined after the ancient Greek tragedy, Oedipus the King. The original script was first written around 429 B.C, by Sophocles. He was most famously known to be one of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived to this day. Knowing that he is a playwright who specializes in writing about the human condition

    Read More

  • Examples Of Oedipus Complex In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    1014 Words  | 3 Pages

    In other words, it includes the sense of rivalry and a desire for sexual involvement with the parent of the opposite sex. Oedipus complex is well-depicted in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Billy Bibbit is the antagonist of this novel and his relationship between his mother is a great example of Oedipus complex. Billy Bibbit and his mother portrayed as an abnormal relationship of mother and son. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Billy Bibbit is portrayed as a momma’s boy. “The first word [he] said [he] st-stut-stuered: m-m-m-m-mamma” (Kesey 134). This shows how Billy Bibbit’s mother is the source of his problems. All the actions that Billy Bibbit and his mother have done is very insane. “Billy lay beside her and put his head in her lap and let her tease at his ear with a dandelion fluff” (Kesey 295). Children at this age usually doesn’t lay beside their mother’s laps. However, Billy Bibbit’s mother also doesn’t act like as if she’s the mother. Her actions toward Billy Bibbit can be seen as the relationship over the mother and son. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, “she wrinkled her nose and opened her lips at him and made a kind of wet kissing sound in the air with tongue, and I had to admit she didn’t look like a mother of any kind” (Kesey 295).

    Read More

  • The Obsessive Impulsive's Style Of Behavior

    781 Words  | 2 Pages

    VIII. the Oedipus complex occurs during the phallic stage of psychosexual development. a boy's decisive psychosexual experience is the Oedipus complex son–father competition for possession of mother. In third stage of psychosexual development that the child's genitalia are 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, so learning the anatomic differences between the gender differences between boy and girl.

    Read More

  • An Intellectual and Emotional Response to Oedipus the King

    1214 Words  | 3 Pages

    While reading the play Oedipus the King, my response to the work became more and more clear as the play continued. When I finished the play, my reaction to the work and to two particular characters was startling and very different from my response while I was still reading. My initial response was to the text, and it was mostly an intellectual one. I felt cheated by the play because the challenge of solving the mystery of the plot was spoiled for me by the obvious clues laid out in the work. My second response was not as intellectual; instead, it came more from a feeling that the play evoked in me. I felt a strong disappointment in the drastic actions that Oedipus and Jocasta took at the end of the play. My two different responses to Oedipus the King, one intellectual and one not, now seem to feed off and to amplify each other as if they were one collective response.

    Read More

  • Significance of the Women in Oedipus Rex

    2627 Words  | 6 Pages

    At the outset of Oedipus Rex no female characters are present; the reader sees a king who comes to the door full of curiosity: “Explain your mood and purport. Is it dread /Of ill that moves you or a boon ye crave?” When the priest has responded that the people are despairing from the effects of the plague, the king shows sympathy for his subjects: “Ye sicken all, well wot I, yet my pain, /How great soever yours, outtops it all.” Thomas Van Nortwick in Oedipus: The Meaning of a Masculine Life : “We see already the supreme self-confidence and ease of command in Oedipus. . . . exudes a godlike mastery in the eyes of his subjects. . . .”(21-22); such “godlike mastery” will be his undoing. The critic Ehrenberg warns that it “may lead to ‘hubris’” (74-75). Throughout the drama Sophocles draws out an ongoing contrast between the “godlike mastery” of the king and the softer, more balanced and selfless characteristics of Jocasta, his wife. She is a foil to Oedipus. Shortly thereafter Creon, Jocasta’s brother, is returning from the Delphic oracle with the fateful words of the god’s command: “...

    Read More

  • Significance Of Individuality In Oedipus The King

    1047 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout my lifetime, I have been told to “be yourself” or that “you are the master of your own fate”. Each one of us is told that we are important because we are unique. However, it certainly hasn’t always been that way. The perceived value of individuals has evolved as we have advanced as a society. The progression of global religions over time is evidence of this. During the period from soon after the advent of religion many thousands of years ago until around 1900, humans saw themselves as relatively unimportant compared to the omnipotent gods. However, since 1900, humans, collectively and individually, have been seen as the utmost authority in the universe. The play Oedipus The King, written by Sophocles

    Read More

  • The Oedipus Complex - Sigmund Freud vs. Jacques Lacan

    1388 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...smaller but clearly important role. Of equal importance, Lacan's theory is easily applicable to either gender. Mirrors work for male or female and a child of either sex can surely feel a desire to return to the safety and comfort of the mother's breast. In conclusion, I believe that Freud's Oedipus Complex was incomplete due to limited scope and sexism. Lacan's interpretation addresses these issues, creating a more versatile and acceptable Oedipus Complex.

    Read More

  • Pride, the Tragic Flaw of Oedipus the King

    513 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to Aristotle, the protagonist in a tragedy must have a tragic flaw that ultimately becomes the cause of his ruin. Oedipus in Oedipus the King by Sophocles tragic flaw that caused his downfall was his pride. Three examples of when Oedipus’ pride got the better of him were: when he left his adopted parents in Cornith, the second is when he goes against Creon, and the third is when Oedipus is demanding that the messenger tell him all he knows about who his real parents are.

    Read More

  • Jungian Archetypes and Oedipus the King

    1161 Words  | 3 Pages

    The play Oedipus the King by Sophocles has multiple examples of collective unconscious archetypes from the theories of Carl G. Jung. In general Jung's theories say that there are archetypes that define the world, its people, and why people participate or commit certain activities. Jung explains that these archetypes are harbored in the collective unconscious of every person's mind. The archetype of the hero is one of them. The middle of Oedipus the King shows the character Oedipus as the Jungian archetypal hero and sacrificial scapegoat.

    Read More

  • Oedipus the King: Characterization

    2442 Words  | 5 Pages

    This essay will illustrate the types of characters depicted in Sophocles’ tragic drama, Oedipus Rex, whether static or dynamic, flat or round, and whether protrayed through the showing or telling technique.

    Read More

  • An Analysis of Oedipus the King

    465 Words  | 1 Pages

    Here is a story where Oedipus the King, who has accomplished great things in his life, discovers that the gods were only playing with him. He has everything a man of that time could want; he is king of Thebes, he has a wonderful wife and children, and great fame through out the lands. He has lived a good life, but in the end everything is taken from him.

    Read More

  • Oedipus The Messenger Essay

    1156 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Messenger’s speech serves multiple dramatic functions. For example, the connection between Oedipus and the Sphinx is drawn when Oedipus is compared to a “Libyan lion” (5, 919). This connection is important because it likens him to a creature with mixed identities. The speech also gives reasoning behind Oedipus’s choice to blind himself. He believed that he deserved a fate worse than death for committing incest and patricide. By blinding himself, he separates himself from the living and the dead, and essentially exiles himself. This reflects the usual punishment for patricide, which is exile. Removing his eyes is also somewhat similar to castrating oneself, which is a punishment for incest. In the end, he was mostly an innocent bystander in his own story because fate and fortune control everything.

    Read More

  • The Psychology of King Oedipus

    1027 Words  | 3 Pages

    Oedipus Rex, an ancient Greek tragedy authored by the playwright Sophocles, includes many types of psychological phenomena. Most prominently, the myth is the source of the well-known term Oedipal complex, coined by psychologist Sigmund Freud in the late 1800s. In psychology, “complex” refers to a developmental stage. In this case the stage involves the desire of males, usually ages three to five, to sexually or romantically posses their mother, and the consequential resentment of their fathers. In the play, a prince named Oedipus tries to escape a prophecy that says he will kill his father and marry his mother, and coincidentally saves the Thebes from a monster known as the Sphinx. Having unknowingly killed his true father Laius during his escape, he marries the widowed queen of Thebes, his mother Jocasta. Many events in the story should lead to suspicion of their marriage, but out of pride and ignorance Oedipus stubbornly refuses to accept his fate. Together, these sins represent the highest taboos of Greek society, revealed by Socphocles’s depiction of the already pervasive story. Before the Thebian plays, the myth centered more around Oedipus’s journey of self-awareness; meanwhile, Sophocles shows Oedipus’s struggles with his inevitable desire toward his mother throughout these stages of psychological development.

    Read More

  • Oedipus: A Victim of Fate

    710 Words  | 2 Pages

    Oedipus was a victime of fate, his futur was foretold by an Oracle, he had no way of knowing that his wife was his mother nor that the stranger he killed was his father. Oedipus could not prevent his own downfall. Oedipus was the king of Thebes, he became king when he cured the city of a deadly plague. He cured the plague by solving the riddle of the mythical creature, the Sphinkx. Now the city is suffering from another plague and as king Oedipus must solve the riddle of this one.

    Read More

More about The Complex: A Psychological Concept Of The Oedipus Complex

Open Document