Concept and What is: Oedipus complex | Psychology
Oedipus Complex
The Oedipus complex was a concept created by Sigmund Freud, although described and named with the term ' complex ' by Carl Jung. The creator of psychoanalysis was influenced in his observations and research, by tragedy Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles. In this play Oedipus, unaware that Jocasta is his mother, marries her, after murdering his own father, Laius, unconscious of the kinship between the two. Upon discovering the truth, he blinds himself while his mother commits suicide.
This essential and universal concept of psychoanalysis awakens feelings in children opposites, love and hatred, directed to those closest to him, his parents. This occurs when she crosses the phallic phase, during the second childhood, and raises awareness of diversity among genders. Usually she feels attracted, then by the opposite sex, in his own environment, the familiar. This complex has beginning when the baby, accustomed to receiving full attention and protection, to reach about three years of age, becomes the target of many prohibitions that are unknown to him. Now the child can no longer do what you know, because you're already ' grown up ', can no longer share the whole time the parents ' bed, should avoid walking naked at will, as before, among other prohibitions.
When the child realizes that he is no longer the center of the universe, and you realize the distinctions between herself and her parents, she joins one of several stages of passage in his life, perhaps the most important, because it will define its behavior in adulthood, especially regarding his sex life. Generally, the child feels a strong attraction to the opposite sex – the girl by her father, the boy by his mother – and antagonize, while ama, his opponent – in the case of the girl, the mother figure; in the boy, the paternal-image, conflicting feelings that configure the Oedipus complex.
If everything develops normally, the trend is the girl identify with the mother, developing so feminine attitudes, while the boy shall be based on the male model, inherited from the father. However, when the fear of running out of the possession of that which she antagonize is greater than all, can occur an empathy with the person of the opposite sex, generating in the future possibly homosexual attitudes.
The Oedipus complex allows the individual, in childhood, make the transition from the sphere of instincts and impulses for the cultural universe. In the event that the person does not achieve this fundamental shift in human mental life, she can enter into a process of extreme psychic unrest. So that the child can suppress their libido – energy directed toward all forms of pleasure, sexual – not only, she undergoes a symbolic mechanism of castration.
Afraid of being spayed, she hides her feelings and the channels for the entry in the social scope and toward partners who do not configure for her in taboo. Thus, she opts for the values of civilization and leaves behind no trace incestuous, now restricted to his unconscious.
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