What is the Oedipus complex?

Oedipus complex is a psychoanalytic theory promoted and famous for Sigmund Freud. The theory that first presented Freud in 1897, although not fully defined much later in his career suggests that children have a subconscious and a suppressed desire to own one of their parents and remove the other parent. The exact nature of the theory and the subconscious of the child differs between sons and daughters.

The name and concept of theory were derived from the Greek myth in which Oedipus rex accidentally killed his father and married his mother. Freud borrowed this term and began to apply it to its patients after carrying out case studies that have shown the existence of unconscious desire to own or own parents. Freud developed theory during his career, and eventually believed that this desire was universal and healthy.

Freud's theory of Oedipus complex was originally applied only to the boy. According to the theory, the sons have subconsciousness for their mothers and thus see their father as a threat and also believe that castration is truthA similar result of rivalry, thus developing castration anxiety. Freud believed that this Oedipal desire occurred primarily in boys aged three and five years.

Freud eventually expanded the theory to include girls. Freud, however, believed that the theory was reflected in girls as a strong homosexual attraction to their mother, before they eventually became an offixed father when they became disappointed with their mothers due to the lack of penis of their mothers. So Freud suggested that the development of Oedipus complex in women was more complicated than the development of Oedipus complex in men and led to the development of penis envy.

In addition to believed that the complex Oedipus and Oedipal desire are natural, Freud also believes, the chip of a successful distinction of the complex is essential for well -being. Assumed that he could not work in the Oedipus phase and solve the desire could lead to sexual behavior considered deviant such as sexual neurosis, pedophilia and homosXuality.

Within Freud's theory, children work through their Oedipal phase by developing a deep affinity with a parent's parent. In other words, children lose their desire to own the parent of their opposite sex and instead start identifying with a parent who is the same sex as they are. Sexual desires are therefore redirected elsewhere.