Oedipus Complex

According to Freud’s psychological stage theory of development, a child goes through five
stages that lead to his or her personal development: oral, anal, penis, latent, and genitalia.
Oedipus complex describes the rivalry of a child’s development with the same-sex parents
because of his sexual interest from the opposite mother, their gender, and that it is a major
struggle of the phallic stage of Freud’s theory, which will take place between 3 and 5 years of
age.
While Freud suggested there was an Oedipus complex for both girls and boys, his ideas about
the complex in boys were much better growth, while his ideas about girls were a source of
much criticism.
Origins
The Oedipus complex was first shown in Freud in Interpretation of Dreams in 1899, but did not
name a concept until 1910. The complex after the character was called the title in Sophocles
“Oedipus Rex. In this Greek tragedy, Oedipus was abandoned by his parents when he was a
baby. Then, as an adult, Oedipus unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother. Freud
felt that Oedipus’ lack of awareness was his predicament much like a child because of their
sexual desire the opposite-sex parent and the aggression and envy towards the same-sex
parent over the child unconscious.
Freud was more successful in developing his ideas about a complex in boys than in girls.

 
The development of the Oedipus complex
In the development of Oedipus complex during the phallic stage in the psycho-sexual stages of
Freud, who takes place between the ages of 3 and 5. At that time, a boy begins to consciously
desire his mother. However, he soon learns that he cannot act on his desires. At the same time
he notices his father receiving love from his mother that he covets, causing jealousy and
competition.

Although the boy imagines challenging his father, he knows he cannot do it in real life. Also, a
boy is confused by his conflicting feelings towards his father even though he is jealous of his
father, as he loves and needs him. Moreover, the boy develops castration anxiety, anxious that
the father will undermine operations from him as punishment for his feelings.
Oedipus knot solution
The boy uses a series of defense mechanisms to solve the Oedipus complex. He uses
oppression to land his incestuous feelings towards his mother into the unconscious. He also
suppresses his feelings of rivalry towards his father by identifying with him instead. By holding
his father up as a role model, the boy no longer has to fight him. Instead, he learns from him
and becomes more like him.

It is at this point that the boy develops the superego, the conscience of the character. The
Supreme Ego embraces the values of the boy’s parents and other authority symbols, which give
the child an internal mechanism to prevent impulses and inappropriate actions.

At each stage of Freud’s theory of development, children must solve the central struggle in
order to move to the next stage. If a child fails to do so, they will not develop a healthy adult
personality. Thus, the boy must dissolve the Oedipus complex during the phallic stage. If not,
in adulthood the boy will experience difficulties in the areas of competition and love.

In a state of competition, adults may apply his experience of competing with his father to other
men, which made him feel fear and guilt toward competing with them. In the case of love, the
mother man may become the focus of her attention, inadvertently seeking important others
that are similar to his mother.

Resolution of the Oedipus Complex

The boy uses a series of defense mechanisms to resolve the Oedipus Complex. He uses
repression to relegate his incestuous feelings towards his mother to the unconscious. He also
represses his feelings of rivalry towards his father by identifying with him instead. By holding his
father up as a role model, the boy no longer has to fight him. Instead, he learns from him and
becomes more like him.

It is at this point that the boy develops a superego, the conscience of the personality. The
superego adopts the values of the boy’s parents and other authority figures, which gives the
child an internal mechanism to guard against inappropriate impulses and actions.
At each stage of Freud’s theory of development, children must resolve a central conflict in
order to move on to the next stage. If the child fails to do so, they will not develop a healthy
adult personality. Thus, the boy must resolve the Oedipus Complex during the Phallic stage. If
this doesn’t happen, in adulthood the boy will experience difficulties in the areas of competition
and love.

In the case of competition, the adult may apply his experience of rivalry with his father to other
men, causing him to feel apprehensive and guilty about competing with them. In the case of
love, the man may become mother-fixated, inadvertently seeking out significant others that
resemble his mother.

Critical Evaluation

Freud believed that the Oedipus complex was ‘the central phenomenon of the sexual period of
early childhood’. But there’s little evidence to support his claim regarding sex differences in
morality (as a result of the female’s weaker superego). For example, as measured by children’s
ability to resist temptation, girls, if anything, are stronger than boys (Hoffman, 1975).

According to Horney (1924) and Thompson (1943), rather than girls wanting a penis, what they
really envy is males’ superiour social status. Freud assumed that the Oedipus complex is a
universal phenomenon, but Malinowski’s (1929) study of the Trobriand Islanders showed that
where the father is the mother’s lover but not the son’s disciplinarian (i.e. an avuncular
society), the father–son relationship was very good.

It seems that Freud over-emphasized the role of sexual jealousy. But this is still only one study,
and more societies, both Western and avuncular, need to be examined.