Sigmund Freud's Oedipus Complex Essay

Oedipus Rex, an ancient Greek tragedy authored by the playwright Sophocles, includes many types of psychological phenomena. Most prominently, the myth is the source of the well-known term Oedipal complex, coined by psychologist Sigmund Freud in the late 1800s. In psychology, “complex” refers to a developmental stage. In this case the stage involves the desire of males, usually ages three to five, to sexually or romantically posses their mother, and the consequential resentment of their fathers. In the play, a prince named Oedipus tries to escape a prophecy that says he will kill his father and marry his mother, and coincidentally saves the Thebes from a monster known as the Sphinx. Having unknowingly killed his true father Laius during his

In order to completely understand Oedipus and his actions, we must first understand the basics of Freud’s theories. One of the most well known aspects of Freudian theory is the Oedipus Complex. We can already see a relationship between the Oedipus

Freud, Sigmund. “The Oedipus Complex.” Trans. James Strachey. A World of Ideas. 7th ed. Print.

The messenger reveals that Polybus and his wife are not Oedipus’s real parents. Oedipus was brought to palace to be raised after being found by a Sheppard. Oedipus asks that this shepherd reveal the truth to him, but Jocasta begins to beg him not to stop to try and find out the truth. The Sheppard finally reveals that Oedipus is son of Laius. Oedipus screams when he realizes the truth about his parents. A messenger says Jocasta has hanged herself, and Oedipus has chosen to stab out his eyes. Oedipus now declares he must be punished and exiled. He asks Creon to look after his daughters, Antigone and Ismene. Creon accepts the ascendency to the throne.

Oedipus the King is a tragedy that displays irony throughout the play. In the play, King Laius and his wife Jocasta learn that in the prophecy their newborn son, Oedipus, will kill his father and marry his mother. In order to prevent the prophecy from occurring, they decide to bind and tie his ankles and then abandoned him. When Oedipus grew up, he eventually learned about this prophecy and decided to leave his parents. What he did not realize was that the parents who raised him were not his biological parents. On his voyage to Thebes, Oedipus ended up in a chariot accident

Freud’s theory of Oedipus complex has brought a lot of controversies in modern psychology and literature while some critics opine Freud’s concept of Oedipus complex deserves a great deal of appreciation. When Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) proposed that the Oedipus complex was psychologically universal, he provoked the evolution of Freudian psychology and the Psychoanalytic treatment method.¬¬¬¬¬¬¬ Certain contemporary psychoanalysts agree with the idea of the Oedipus complex to different degree. Hans Keller proposed it is so "at least in Western societies"; and others consider that ethnologists already have established its temporal and geographic universality. Nonetheless, few psychoanalysts disagree that the "child then entered an Oedipal phase which involved an acute awareness of a complicated triangle involving mother, father, and child" and that "both positive and negative Oedipal themes are typically observable in

Bronislaw Malinowski, in his book ‘Sex and Repression in Savage Society’ says that it is wrong to assume that Oedipus complex is universal. He argues that this complex only “corresponds to the patrilineal societies” (5) in the world. He says that since “the constitutions of the family” goes under changes related to power, settlement, housing, sources of food, labour etc from time to time, and the “passion and attachments within the family vary” (4). Some critics connect this theory with Freud’s complex family structure. In his book, his father was twenty years elder than his mother and had a grandson when Freud was born (Afroz 9). M. Young, in his book “Whatever happened to Human nature?”, present Freud’s words from his letter to a friend where he says that he remembers falling in love with his mother and being jealous of his father and thus he “regards this complex as universal” (Afroz 9). Thus critics criticize him of regarding his personal experience as a universal one. Michel Juffé, a psychiatric says that “He [Freud] could not accept that parents - including his own parents - could be responsible for the psychic problems undergone by children. In

In the establishment of the play, Jocasta and Oedipus seem as though they are a traditional royal husband and wife, with ordinary children. They love each other, unaware of the truth. Jocasta illustrates what she did to her son as a consequence of an incestual and sinful prophecy that her son would someday kill Laius and marry her, as told by an oracle. She reveals that she and Laius fastened their son’s ankles and left him on a mountain to die. She declares, “[...] My baby / no more murdered his father than Laius suffered -- / his wildest fear -- death at his own son’s hands” (794-796). While both

The play consist of three sections that tell the downfall of Oedipus who was born under the royalty of king and queen of the city of Thebes, Laius and Jocasta. When born, Oedipus is given a prophecy of killing his father and marrying his mother. To avoid conflict entirely, Laius and Jocasta decide to terminate the baby. This is done by piercing his ankles with shackles and leaving

Freud is wrong for naming the Oedipus Complex after Oedipus, and here is why. In this complex, Freud states that an infant developing a sexual love for his or her opposite gender parent is a necessary step in the psychological development of a human being. Though this

One moment, Oedipus is brimming with hope; the next, he’s sure that he is the killer of his father, King Laius. Every time Oedipus thinks that it can’t possibly be him, evidence proves otherwise. His wife, Jocasta, attempts to prove his innocence but “lets out part of the dire secret by her allusion to the ‘triple crossroads’” (Haigh). By attempting to assist Oedipus, she

Then a terrible plague descended on the land, and the oracle proclaimed that Laius's murderer must be punished. After he made king, Oedipus takes it upon himself to rid Thebes of the plague by finding Laius' murder.(p311/ln.104) Oedipus soon discovered that he had unknowingly killed his father. In grief and despair at her incestuous life, Jocasta killed herself, and when Oedipus realized that she was dead and that their children were accursed, he put out his eyes and relinquished the throne. He lived in Thebes for

The messenger remarks that Oedipus need not worry, because Polybus and his wife, Merope, are not Oedipus’s biological parents. The messenger, a shepherd by profession, knows firsthand that Oedipus came to Corinth as an orphan. One day long ago, he was tending his sheep when another shepherd approached him carrying a baby, its ankles pinned together. The messenger took the baby to the royal family of Corinth, and they raised him as their own. That baby was Oedipus. Oedipus asks who the other shepherd was, and the messenger answers that he was a servant of Laius.

The boy then feels hostility and jealously towards his father, but then will come to realize that his father is much more powerful then he is. Freud says, “ the boy will then experience castration anxiety which is the fear that his father will punish him by castration (Freud, 1993) .” Fixation at a particular stage may result If the developmental conflicts are not successfully resolved. He figured if this feelings were not successfully resolved then they would contribute to neuroses in later life. The only way anyone could resolve the Oedipus Complex and the anxieties from the complex , the boy ultimately will join force with the enemy by resorting to the defense mechanism of identification.

Oedipus is a boy who was left on the mountains to die by his own parents, the King and Queen of Thebes, due to a tragic prophecy told by the Oracles of Delphi. The prophecy declares that the boy would be destined to murder his father, king Louis of Thebes and then incest with Louis’s wife, Jocasta, Oedipus mother. After being abandoned on the mountain by his wicked parents, a shepherd found this little child and takes him to the King and Queen. King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth decided that since they don't have a child of their own, it would