Sunday, February 18, 2018

The Oedipus Complex

The Oedipus Complex has been an ever popular Freudian concept.
Here's a summary of Psychosexual development as per Freud and the Oedipus Complex concept.
I insist you put up with this incestuous concept :p

So Freud was an extraordinary Psychoanalyst and gave the stages of 'Psycho Sexual Development'  in his book 'Interpretation of Dreams'.

There Are 4 stages of Psychosexual development in Freud's opinion that all of us pass through to reach the mature stage eventually.

The 4 stages are :

1. Oral
2. Anal
3. Phallic
Latent period
4. Genital

Remember -
Mnemonic : On A PG break.

If one fails to break through any of these stages , it is said he'd develop specific psychiatric illnesses.
It's important for a child to go through these stages without 'fixation' over any of those.

For example Oral stage fixation Makes you SAD
Schizophrenia
Anxiety
Dependent Personality disorder.

Anal Stage fixation makes you an 'Anal' person.
So you're likely to develop Obsessive Compulsive disorder or Obsessive Compulsive Personality (Ankanastic Personality)

Phallic Stage Fixation is "complex."
So in previous stages , it's been obvious what the object of gratification has been (Mouth and Anus respectively).
This one's slightly more "complex".

So as per Freudian theory , Boys would be sexually fixated on their Mothers, viewing their Fathers as a threat ;
This is called the 'Oedipus Complex'.
And also have Castration anxiety.

The theory says similarly Girls would be sexually fixated on their Fathers , viewing their mothers as a threat ;
This is called the 'Elektra Complex'.
And have Penis Envy.

The Oedipus Complex :
So this stems from the Greek story where Oedipus marries his own mother unkowningly , after he kills his father.

King Laius was the king of Greek city Thebes. He and his wife Jocasta bore a child : Oedipus.
The problem is some Seer prophesized that this child would kill him. And so he sent away his child, who was found and raised in another city by another King. Years later he returned to Thebes and quarreled with an old man and ended up killing him.
After a while he was told that the King had been killed , and that he could take charge of the town if he defeats the Sphinx. He did so, and won the hand of the King's wife Jacosta as well.
Years later he found out the King was actually his Father , and his Wife was his mother.
Here's where the 'Oedipus Complex' gets its name from.

Electra Complex
Stems from another Greek story.
Electra was the daughter of Agamemnon, whose wife killed him.
Electra then avenged her father's death by killing her mother.
(Talk about Daddy's lil girl ;;) )

Another complex is 'Pharoah Complex' where siblings are fixated sexually on each other.

Fixation in Phallic phase leads to Paraphilias and Hysteria.

Hope this wasn't overly disturbing !
Happy studying !
Stay awesome.
~ A.P. Burkholderia

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