The Oedipus Complex: one of the most controversial concepts of Freud’s theory

The Theory of Psychosexual Development reveals an interesting concept.

The Oedipus Complex: one of the most controversial concepts in Freud's theory.

The Oedipus Complex is a term that Sigmund Freud used in his Theory of the Stages of Psychosexual Development to describe a child's feeling of desire for the mother and hatred of the father.. This hatred is because the child perceives his father as a competitor for the mother's affection, and expresses his feelings in the form of anger, tantrums and disobedience behaviors.

Freud first proposed the Oedipus Complex in 1899 in his book Interpretation of Dreamsbut did not begin to use it formally until 1910. The name was inspired by Oedipus, a character from Greek mythology who accidentally killed his father.

The Psychosexual Theory of Sigmund Freud

At the time in which Freud lived there was a strong repression of sexual desires. The Austrian psychoanalyst understood that there was a relationship between the neurosis and sexual repression. Therefore, it was possible to understand the nature and variety of the disease by knowing the sexual history of the patient.

Freud considered that children are born with a sexual desire which they must satisfy, and that there are a number of stages of neurosis.and that there are a series of stages, during which the child seeks pleasure through different objects. This is what led him to the most controversial part of his theory: the theory of psychosexual development.

Phallic stage and the Oedipus Complex

According to Freud, there are several stages of the psychosexual development of the infant, and the Oedipus Complex occurs during the Phallic stageThe phallic stage: an important moment for the development of sexual identity.

This phase takes place from the age of three and lasts until the age of six. The genitals are the object of pleasure, and interest in sexual differences and genitalia appears, so it is of utmost importance not to repress this desire and to handle this stage correctly, since it could obstruct the child's capacity for research, knowledge and general learning.

Freud states that male children experience sexual desires towards their mothers and see their fathers as rivals, so they fear being castrated, a process that results in the Oedipus Complex. Later children identify with their fathers and repress feelings towards their mothers in order to leave this phase behind. The correct assimilation of this stage results in the maturity of sexual identity.

The concept of the Oedipus Complex only refers to male children, since in girls it is called the Electra Complex.

Overcoming the Oedipus Complex

For proper development into an adult with a healthy identity, the child must identify with the same sex as his or her parent.. Freud suggests that as long as the IT wants to eliminate the parent, the EGO knows that its parent is much stronger. Thus, the child experiences what is known as castration anxietyfear of emasculation. As the child becomes aware of the physical differences between males and females, he assumes that in females the penis has been removed, so that his father may castrate him as punishment for desiring his mother.

Many are the criticisms Freud has received for the concept of the Oedipus Complex, even from within the world of psychoanalysis itself.