ISSN 0737-4828 Journal of Evolutionary Psychology VOLUME XXVII NUMBERS 3 and 4 OCTOBER 2005‘Sigmund Freud was bor in Vienna in 1856 and died in London in 1939. Highly influenced by the works of Joseph Breuer, Freud notably went on to become known as the “Father of Psychoanalysis.” There are, however, many modem critics of Freud who feel he created a labyrinth of errors into which he led his followers (Crews, 1995). Some ‘even question whether or not anyone can consider psychoanalytic theory "scientific™ ‘Giolland, 2004). ‘Never-the-less, Freud became famous for his contributions to many theoretical models and psychoanalytical processes. He contributed much to the areas of transference and countertransference, that is, the intensive emotional exchange (love or hhate) between a client and therapist. He offered much insight to mental processes, often. referred to as /yssterfas or neuroses. Freud taught that all psychiatric symptoms involved determination (a cause), the origins of which were unconscious or operating underground, and suppression, a defense used by patients against unpleasant conflicting emotions. Freud was also famous for his theory of the Oedipus Complex. Freud felt that one must resolve the Oedipus Complex before attaining normal psychosexual development. ‘The typical complex is a parental one. According to oedipal theory, a boy's libido is ‘aimed initially towards his mother while rivalry is aimed towards his father. The story of ‘Oedipus, taken from the Greek tragedy, involves a royal son who kills his father and marries his mother, albeit unknowingly. The Greek tragedy does not follow the Freudian sequence per say, Yet it holds that the Greek dramatist intuitively projected the plot ‘whose application Freud discovered (Jastrow, 1959). While the legend of King Oedipus killing his father and marring his mother was done out of ignorance, s0 is a child's ‘manifestation of the Freudian paradigm. As Freud would explain, the resolution of the Oedipus Complex is secomplished unconsciously, albeit naturally. ‘Qedipal Theory = Boys: Freud theorized that the triadie family (mother, fither, and child) maintains a complexity of love and competition. He postulated that during the earliest years of « boy's life, be has a powerful love affair with his mother (carhexis) and a jealous rivalry {compesition) with his face, Fread's oedipal formation portrayed ihe boy's buildup of castration anslety* a3 a prime motivator for giving up sexual aims towards his mother. [*When confronted by the stark fact that his oedipal stance may result in the loss of his penis, he concludes (unconsciously) that he must give up his sexual intent toward his mother]. Castration anxiety serves in reorienting the boy so that he identifies with (rather ‘than opposes) his father so later he re-channels his sexual energies toward other non- ‘mother feminine figures. Subsequent to the boy's oedipal resolution, he will eventually move into the /arency stage where there is repression of sexual impulses; then at puberty, his heterosexual interests resurge. Freud theorized that the nature of this interest would be strongly influenced by the manner in which the original oedipal conflict was resolved. In this reorienting process (decathexis), the boy fashions the foundation for his superego. Asthe boy repudiates his sexual impulses towards his mother, he identifies with his father. He also surrenders to him, allowing his father to remain the mother’s original lover. The boy therefore identifies with his father rather than rivaling with him.(Note thatthe “rivaling” to begin with is mestly an unconscious perception on the boy's Dart, and is therefore not always overt.] Furthermore a father should never feed into the "vai, but rather understand and nurture it, and let it take its course, knowing the boy ‘will outgrow it, and thatthe next phase will be resolution and reorientation, It is during this phase that a father and son can really do much bonding and aften the best time for the father to play with his son so thatthe son develops a stronger sense of masculinity and. self. Tio will eventually prepare hien for a meii's world of finding women. Some salient ‘moments of “rival” cues can be recalled. Below is one example: A 2-year old boy saw his father sitting very close to his mother and decided to sit right between them, nudging his father away fom the mother (overt rival act). The father gently nudged him back and reminded him that he and mommy were spending some quality time ‘together. But of course, the boy didn't want to hear that, so he started acting up and screaming and fusing. ‘What the parents in this example need to realize is that while the boy may scream end fass, it is really a precursor to his resolution of the ‘The father must stand his ‘ground, however, and continue his bonding with the mother. (If a boy processes his, father as “weal” or “passive” this could complicate things.) The boy usually gets what hhe needs through normal processes; for example the boy will seck mom's affection when dad is away. This usually occurs when the father is at work ot preaccupied with other projects in or outside the home. In normal processes, the futher does not stay out of the picture too long. If he does, the complex can worsen and the father may fail to reorient his son. For example, the boy may over-bond with the mother and visa versa, which is dangerous. The missing father can complicate things, resulting in issues with an unresolved Oedipus Complex. According to Freud, some problems related to the unresolved Oedipus Complex could result in perversions such as seeking sexual encounters with members of their own gender. (This willbe discussed in more detail iter inthe sub-section, “Boys Castration Ansley") Qedipal Theory = Girls: ‘The gil. like the boy, starts out in life with her mother as the primary object of attachment and affection. The girl's anxiety arises differently, however. According to Freud, her anxiety arises when she finds out she doesn’t have a penis and feels as though ‘she was castrated and is inferior. Subsequently, she develops what Freud refers to as ‘Penis erry. The girl blames her mother for this and therefore takes on her father as her primary love object. Eventually, the girl will develop a defense against the incest taboo and will ‘eventually resolve the complex by reorienting with her mother. At the core of the resolution, she identifies with her mother’s sexual potential and perceives men as sex ‘objects who can help compensate for her lack of a penis. Later, she realizes she can be impregnated und ean produce a baby; an object that extends out of her vagina, hence» symbolic phallus equation. Thus, sbe resolves her pents envy. Below is an example of girl's rejection of her mother, and identification with her father (AKA the Electra Complex), albeit inculpable:leait cone a ae A 3-year-old girl takes hold of her daddy"s hand every time she walks past her mommy. Along the way, she'll sticks out her tongue as she passes her mother. Later she begs her father to play “giddy up" with her. She loves the up and down action she gets as she pony rides on her daddy's leg. ‘As anyone can see, the girl"s behavior is innocent. Little girls love it when they sit on their father’s knee, or some part of his leg, and ride it. She embraces his masculinity and passion by doing such. In Freudian cogitation, she feels compensated for having a lack ‘ofa penis. She viciously takes on the strength of her father; while at the same time rejects the passivity of her mother, of whom she unconsciously blames for her not having ‘penis, Later, she will realize this is inappropriate and gains a defense against the incest ¢aboo and reengages with her mother, who will teach her about the women’s world and evince her how she can obiain her own man someday. Empirical Findings Parental Bonding Freud postulated that in the earliest years of development the child would have a strong bond with the same-sex parent and a rival relationship with the opposite sex parent. So what does some of the post-theory empirical literature, as it rates to attitudes toward same-sex and opposite parents, show? Fisher and Greenberg (1985, 1996) explain the empirical research relevant to oedipal dynamics. First, the question arises whether or not it's even true that children feel closer to their mothers during the earliest years. Certainly they have closer physical contact with the mother since the child is inside her body for the first nine months of fetal development. Many studies within the literature do support that infants show a preference for the mother. This was found to be true in empirical studies by Ainsworth et al, (1972), Lynn (1964), and Schaffer and Emerson (1964). Rabban (1959) found that children of both sexes “prefer” the mother as early 23 age three; this partially supports Freudian theory. Studies such as those by, Ammons & Ammons (1949) and Kagan & Lemkin (1960), were inconsistent and contradictory to both boys and girls, thus they do ‘not support Freudian theory in totality Friedman (1952) however, studied both conscious and unconscious motives and showed promise to the theory while discovering both boys" and girls’ unconscious levels. icdman first taped into the subject’s conscious modes of response. He showed each child a picture depicting a child and the back view of two parents looking at the child. He then asked them which parent shey loved best and which parent loved them best. He ‘was unable to demonstrate any consistent attitudes of like vs. dislike with respect to same sexed verses opposite sexed parents. So, at this conscious level, he was unable 10 support the oedipal theory. But, then in order to involve a more unconscious response, he used two other procedures. He asked his subjects to complete “Oedipal fables” that involved ‘engaging in pleasurable activities: one alone with a parent and then the next involving ‘meeting the other parent. He asked each child to compose stories about two pictures, one ‘depicting a child and a “father surrogate” and the other. a child and a “mother surrogate.”fe had predicted what the data confirmed, that the children would give more negative ndings to the “Oedipal fables” in which they were initially alone with the opposite-sexed ‘erent but subsequently met the sume-sexed parent, He predicted with success that boys ‘ould producs a significantly greater proportion of conflict themes than girls when the timulus was a father-figure and girls would produce a greater proportion of conflict temea than boys when the stimulus wes a mother-figure. ‘Thus, overall he wns able to emonstrate the oedipal pattern at the unconscious levels as demonstrated by more ‘sitive feelings toward the opposite-sexed parent than toward the same-sexed parent in ‘oth boys and girls. It makes sense that a paychosnalytically-bazed theory, would show romising results when unconscious motives were taken into consideration. In addition to Friedman's (1952) study, Schill (1966), and Imber (1969), provide idence for the selective attitudes of parents by children in the oedipal phase. Feiner 1988) found evidence for a predicted selective sensitivity to certain kinds of body threat tring the presumed childhood oedipal phase while the Berg & Berg (1983) study apported the oedipal phase of children. But, the stady waa limited to a medical sample, Sasaing loves Sfeaijects gut tie eats oe on ne eee OF ‘casuring levels of subjects’ guilt to the denths of same-sex verses opposite sex parents. ¢ found that guilt was experienced with reference to the loss ofthe same-sex parent, hhereas the death of the opposite cx parent was idealized. This too is flawed since steavernent complications may have been a factor. More recently and more apressively, Watson and Getz (1990), by way of having parents record systematically cir child's aggressive and affectionate behaviors toward same-sex versus opposite 3x ‘rents, found that the relative frequencies within the observations (with peak age of 4) ‘Pported the oedipal eory. oresolved Oedipus Complex Freud postulated that one would be more inclined toward a healthy psychosexual ‘velopment once the Oedipus Complex was resolved. Girls must resolve their sentment about lacking a penis and their conflict with their mother, who was the iginal blame. They must be given hope that they’l! be able to enter womanhood with ticipation to bear a child instead of growing a penis. Boys must resolve their castration sxiety to a degree where they trust the same-sex parent, identify with their masculinity, d give up the libido love for their mother and transfer it to an opposite sex partner later ute. wes: ‘The logical consequences for those who fail to achieve oedipal resolution are ‘culties in future relationships with parents and ultimately with the opposite sex bject-Relations). For example, males may show signs of problems in intimacy, as well the insbility to resolve any antagonisms or defenses leading to inhibitions. Freud often te about oedipal-derived anxicties as responsible for many psychological turbances. But what does the research find? After reviewing tbe literature, Fisher and zenberg (1996) stated that, “..the surprisingly intensive sexual discomforts typifying ‘ent-child relationships flow logically from the oedipal schema.”ook wseae 4 secwuem mo BUEFSOR ——According to the research, unresolved complexes, for the boy, tend to be correlated by the mother’s dominance, because her power and intense closeness interferes ‘with the son's identification with his father and thereby blocks the resolution of the oedipal dilemma. Results of the unresolved conflict tend to follow the theme that the ‘adult male shows evidence of poor heterosexual adjustment. The following studies ‘support this theory: 'Winch’s (1950) found that the greater a boy's love attachment is to his mother, the less active he is in heterosexual behavior. In a study of indexes derived from ratings of multiple cultures, Stephens (1962) indicated that a son’s unusual closeness to his mother was predictive of intensified sexusl anxiety. Ina study by Imber (1969), subjects that reported high ocdipal anxiety had more difficulty in response to the word father than did subject with low anxiety. This therefore that those who fail to achieve oedipal resolution would have difficulty in furure relationships with parents and ultimately to the opposite sex. Kagan & Moss (1962) concluded that boys who showed harm anxiety during preschool years were anxious about their sexuality as adults and showed inhibitions of heterosexual behavior. They also showed problems with masculinity and were uninvolved with male activities and withdrew from same-sex peers. In a longitudinal study of 87 men, Block & Haan (1971) found that those whe were sexually inhibited were likely to have had mother's who were authoritarian and limited their son’s independence. However, he found that among boys whose fathers ‘were portrayed es “strong” and “outgoing” and mothers’ portrayed as having boundaries, hhad greater sexual comfort. In another longitudinal study over a 30 year period of 95 men. Vaillant (1977) found that those whose mother’s had, early on, been domineerixg had the greatest difficulty in maintaining satisfied heterosexual relationships. Boy's Castration Anadety ‘According to Freud, unresolved oedipal dilemmas and castration anxiety, could lead to homosexuality and other perversions. These often manifest when a boy has ‘strong sttachment to his mother, while the father, for whatever reason, unavails himself to resolve the attachment. Subsequently, the boy will Ister unconsciously equate sexual intimacy with any women as equivalent to the father-forbidden relationship with his mother and consequently find that his heterosexual contact creates a sense of inferiority, anxiety and guilt. This phenomenon can also be referred to as defense against the Incest taboo. This is one explanation of unsolved castration anxiety. Fisher & Greenberg (1996) found that in an analysis of the research, a boy's alliance with his father is ‘significant in resolving castration anxiety. They state that the boy's alliance with his {father is more likely to be facilitated by # nurturing stance rather than a fear-provoking ‘stance. Ecmales: “The literature exploring women’s psychosexual outcomes of the unresolved cedipal complex ia scant and inconsistent. For one, most ofthe literature is specific to Giscuss psychopathology, but not specific to itemizing heterosexual adjustments, per s0y-So when reviewing studies on: may not be able to see a correlation between paychopathology and sexuality, e.g. Fisher (1973). In general mental illness terms, pathology is not always related to the unresolved oedipal dilemma, nor is the literature specific in stating this either, ‘Using projective test scores, Grayson (1967) found that the loss of a git!’s father during the early phase, which would presumably aggravate oedipal conflicts, was associated with “paychosexual conflict." However, Winch (1951), who studied a large sample of both males and females, supports the oedipal theory for the males, but not for females. In torms of female homosexuality, Freud felt thatthe gil in this situation had ‘encountered an unusual amount of frustration or disappointment at the time she had ‘ured toward her father in the oedipal reorientation phase, which apperently could result from numerous variations. Because of the disappointment in the resolution phase, be theorized that she would regress toward a mother's love objects, which manifest itself sometimes as homosexual gravitation in the post-latency period. In his discussion of a case with a homosexual woman, Freud (1920) noted that the female homosexual’s ‘mtitudes toward the penis are significant to their orientation. In the literature, two studies provide support to the later. In one, Goldberg & Milstein (1965) proved that women with high Iatent homosexual tendencies, as defined by the Minnesota Multiphasic personality Inventory, demonstrated more disturbances in response to pictures of nude males with exposed penises then low latent females. The other by, Kay et al. (1967) showed a trend, for homosexual females to have a fear of inversion to the penis than nou-homosexual ‘Freud also theorized that the average normal woman coped optimally with her ‘cedipal dilemmas by adopting the conventional feminine sex type. Presumably, the resolution process involves giving up the active clitoral situation as a preferred area for ‘sexual stimulation and accepting the passivity implicit in the vagina becoming the major sexual orgen indicative of a readincas to be penetrated. Fisher & Greenberg (1996), however, concluded thet the major tenor of the empirical research concerning orgasm in the women consistently contradicts the theoretical position. Fisher (1973) found that ‘women who prefer clitoral stimulation are no more maladjusted then those who prefer vaginal stimulation and that in some cases, those who prefer vaginal stimulation have ‘More studies need to be conducted in determining whether or not unresolved codipal dilemmas have a negative effect on women's heterosexual edjustment, Males ‘may show more heterosexual maladjustment because an erection is necessary for vaginal insertion, but for females that’s not anatomically necessary. What's pleasurable for 8 ‘woman is the clitoris being aroused and stimulated; actual penetration isn’t always ‘necessary for this to occur. Having penetration without clitoral stimulation could be painful and therefore may support why some anxiety was reported in previous studies. Freud's theory, about woman coping optimally with her unresolved oedipal dilemmas by adopting the conventional feminine sex type. has not strongly been supported.‘Female's Penis-Baby Equation. Freud's notion that pregnancy induces fantasies of gaining a new phallic body ‘was supported by Jones (1989, 1991, and 1994), who agreed with the penis-baby Equation model sa thy found that pregnant women have shown to be prececupied with phallic images. They were also able to produce subliminal pregnancy messages to non- pregnant women, who produced the same phallic imagery as the pregnant women sample. It is interesting to note that numerous studies that employ subliminal stimulation ‘apparently support Freudian hypotheses. This bears weight to the subconscious notations ‘that Freud was so prolific to discuss. ‘As footnoted in Fisher & Greenberg (1996), post-Freudian scientists, however, prefer to rather acknowledge the penis-baby equation phenomena us not being somatically masculine envy on part of the worien, but merely unique feminine needs and body experiences that are intrinsic to every woman. Conclusion While there exists strong criticism for Freud’s theories as not scientifically supported, there is data which supports some of his theories and therapies. Fisher and Greenberg (1985, 1996), who extensively reviewed studies of the oedipal concatenations, contend that, “It is clearly not true that there is a lack of research investment in what Freud had to say.” It scems that studies dealing with subliminal suggestions, hence the ‘unconscious, show the most promising support to Freud's oedipal theory. Research docs show that children do have a strong bond with their mothers in their earliest years of life. It seems that unresolved oedipal conflicts, as reviewed in the report, can be either overt or ‘covert and can tie into psychosexual problems later in life for some. More research is ‘needed to study the oedipal theory rather than discard it as pert of Freud’, 90 called “labyrinth of errors,” as the current trend would have it. James E. Phelan, LCSW Poychotherapist New Egypt, NJ Note of Acknowledgment: The author would like to recognize Robert L. 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