WHAT IS THE OEDIPUS COMPLEX? (ACCORDING TO FREUD) - ECONOMÍA - 2025

The Oedipus complex is the desire of the child to have sexual relations with the father of the opposite sex (boys attracted to mothers and girls attracted to fathers).

It occurs in the third stage of the phallic phase (3-6 years) of the five stages of psychosexual development: oral, anal, phallic, latent and genital - in which the source of libidinal pleasure is in a different erogenous zone of the body of the infant.

Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939), founder of Psychoanalysis, made a large number of contributions to deep Psychology, among which the Oedipus complex stands out as one of the pillars of his theory on the Unconscious and sexuality.

The name is due to the myth of King Oedipus, whose story is about a man who unknowingly kills his father Laius and takes his mother Jocasta as his wife, with whom he has four children. Upon learning what he had done, he removed his eyes and went into exile from Thebes, the land of which he was king.

Freud begins to reflect on the Oedipus complex by developing his drive theory, infantile sexual theories, and the development of infantile sexuality in general.

It is necessary to clarify in advance that the Oedipus complex is, with certain variations, the same in the boy and in the girl, so that the Electra complex does not exist.

Origin of the Oedipus Complex

The Oedipus complex originates in response to the seduction of the mother through her care. These are not intentionally sensual, but actions such as bathing, cleaning or caressing the baby erogenize the infant's body and allow the birth of the drives. This seduction is phallic in nature because the child takes on the status of a phallus for the mother.

In the development of infantile sexuality, Freud develops 4 stages according to the object with which the sexual drive is satisfied: Oral (the object is the mouth), Anal (the object is the anus), Phallic (the object is the penis in the boys, the clitoris in the girl), a period of latency and finally the genital (the submission of the partial drives to the genitality and reproduction).

The Oedipus complex begins during the phallic stage, when the infant develops infantile sexual theories, the most relevant for this complex being the theory that there is only one genital, the penis. According to this theory, the child thinks that all humans have a genital, the penis, and that his mother also has one.

Traversal of the Oedipus Complex

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The Oedipus complex is experienced differently by boys and girls, so we will detail their passage in two different sections.

It is necessary to mention that, for Freud, both masculinity and femininity were independent of the person's gender. For him, both were subjective positions, that is, ways that individuals have of relating to others, the environment around them and with themselves.

In the child

As we said before, during the phallic stage, the child develops infantile sexual theories, the most relevant for the Oedipus complex being the notion that both boys and girls have a penis, as a consequence of explorations of their own body and seduction maternal.

In this stage, the penis takes on the status of a phallus, that is, a symbolic object of power and law. The child, who is in turn a phallic object for his mother, wants to take her as a couple but meets his father, who already has her as such.

His great interest lies in the hope that, thanks to his having a penis, in the future he will be able to access the incestuous object or an equivalent one.

The child grasps this by seeing that there is a satisfaction that the mother does not seek in him, but through his father. He wants to be everything to her. The child thus enters into a conflict with the father: he wishes to put him aside, to take him out of the love triangle to take his place.

The onanism of the child at this time is linked to the fantasized satisfaction of the Oedipus complex.

The boy has been threatened on several occasions that "his penis is going to fall off" or "they are going to cut it off" for playing with his genitalia. The threat is, generally, given by the mother in reference to the father, who would be the castrating agent.

This threat takes on a different meaning when looking at the female genitalia. When she finds that the girl does not have a penis, the threat becomes real for the boy, she really believes she can lose her penis because of her behavior and her pretensions towards her mother.

This threat anguishes him, developing the castration anxiety that will lead him to have a castration complex. The only way in which the child can resolve this complex is by giving up taking his mother as a partner and resigning himself to fantasy as the only form of sexual satisfaction he has left.

In turn, the satisfaction sought now is no longer the same as before; this disappointment also leads him to the burial of the Oedipus complex.

The complex is not resolved (and will never be resolved) but is buried in the unconscious. As a consequence, the child unconsciously links the feminine with a lost penis, the passive, and the masculine with the possibility of losing the penis, the active.

Another consequence, no less important, is that the child stops trying to get rid of his father to want to be like him. He identifies with his father in order to have his mother in his fantasy. This is known as an Oedipus complex scar, where the mother subsists as the first seductress.

Another part of his sexuality is sublimated in other activities; the child enters the latency stage and is dedicated to exploring and learning about the environment in which he lives.

In the girl

The Oedipus complex is asymmetrical between the boy and the girl, since the same stages occur in a different order.

The girl, during the phallic stage, takes her clitoris as a phallus and object of satisfaction. In her unconscious she holds the theory that both men and women have penises. Among them, her mother is also included.

The mother occupies the place of the first seductress, as happens with the boy. The mother, by occupying an active and masculine place, in addition to seducing her daughter makes her believe that she has a penis, for which the girl fantasizes that in the future she will also have one that will allow her to access the incestuous object.

Once she realizes that her mother doesn't have a penis and she won't grow one either, the girl starts to hate her. The mother becomes a sinister object by holding her responsible for her lack of a penis, which she cannot forgive him for.

In other words, she blames her mother for her own castration for finding herself (the mother) castrated as well. The girl assumed a phallic mother because she, the daughter, occupied the place of the phallus without knowing it.

He develops penis envy, which is his way of living the Castration Complex and which will remain in his unconscious from now on.

Freud develops three possible outputs for the woman from the castration complex:

1. Sexual inhibition - Leads to the development of a neurosis. The woman represses her sexuality by believing that, lacking a penis, she is unable to enjoy it.

1. Character alteration - The woman develops a masculinity complex. It behaves as if it has a penis when equating it to the phallus. The masculine becomes part of her character. It is not a disease.

1. Normal femininity - The woman is defined phallic (that is, lacking a phallus) as such. It is also known as the phallic exit to the feminine. It is the entrance to the Oedipus complex.

The girl now assumes that there is something more than the mother and registers the perception of her own castration. That is why she exchanges (that is, she exchanges one thing for another) her erogenous zone and her love object; the erogenous zone ceases to be the clitoris and becomes the vagina, while the object ceases to be its mother (who is now hated) and becomes its father.

The girl assumes that the feminine is the absence of the phallic and that the desire is feminine since you want something that you do not have. The phallus will come to represent the lack of an object.

The girl finally enters the Oedipus complex, wishing that her father would give her a son, a substitute for the lost phallus. She will leave this complex by accepting that she will not receive a son from her father and will look for her in other men. Its position remains masculine for being active in its search.

None of the three resolutions of the castration complex is given alone. Rather, a mixture of all occurs, one being more evident than the others.

It is interesting to note that in the girl's case there is never a burial of the Oedipus complex.

What happens next?

Freud affirms that the crossing of this complex leaves permanent scars on the infant's psyche. The particularity of their trajectory, as well as their subsequent burial (or not), will greatly condition the relationship that the individual will have with their love objects, both in their choice and in their way of relating and interacting.

A child whose father was very severe during this stage, who suffered due to castration anxiety, is capable of developing a phobia (such is the famous case of little Hans and his phobia of horses), or later having difficulties relating to with other men once he is an adult.

A girl who finds it difficult to get out of the Oedipus complex may feel constantly dissatisfied with her partners because she does not measure up to her father.

There are two major sequels to the Oedipus complex: superego formation and fantasy.

The superego is the heir to parental authority. It exists thanks to the essential identifications that occurred during the complex, when the Self was weak. Also, and its severity will also depend on this, it is the heir to the laws and morality, contemporary and subsequent to the complex.

This superego is introjected by the subject, that is, it becomes unconscious and becomes part of the character. In the fantasy the incestuous desires subsist and it remains the only place where the child can still obtain satisfaction.

Once the crossing has been completed, the child enters the latency stage, characterized by the forgetting of incestuous desires and the abrupt cessation of sexual explorations and the child's own body.

Ethical and aesthetic barriers are erected in the Self, the limits of the child with their environment begin to be explored. It is the stage of the little scientist, where the child constantly experiments with the environment, as a way of knowing what he can or cannot do, what he likes and how to obtain it, etc.

In summary, although the Oedipus complex is similar in many respects for both the boy and the girl, their differences are very important when defining the boy and the girl as such.

This is because before entering the complex, both the boy and the girl are bisexual by nature and lack awareness of their gender, identifying with one until later.

In this article you can learn about Freud's best known theories.

References

1. Freud, S.: The sexual clarification of the child, Amorrortu Editores (AE), volume IX, Buenos Aires, 1976.
2. Freud, S.: Analysis of the phobia of a five-year-old child, X, idem.
3. Freud, S.: 23rd Conference: The paths of symptom formation, XVI, idem.
4. Freud, S.: They hit a child, XVII, idem.
5. Freud, S.: Psychology of the masses and analysis of the self, XVIII, idem.
6. Freud, S.: Some psychic consequences of the anatomical difference between the sexes, XIX, idem.
7. Freud, S.: The entombment of the Oedipus complex, XIX, idem.
8. Freud, S.: The infantile genital organization, idem.
9. Freud, S.: I nhibition, symptom and anguish, XX, idem.
10. Freud, S.: 33rd Conference. Femininity, XXII, idem.
11. Freud, S.: Schema of psychoanalysis, XXIII, idem.
12. Sophocles: Edipo Rey, Tragedies, Editorial Edaf, Madrid, 1985.