Ibrahim Mike Adedoyin
Professor Nancy Hindle
ENGL 289-91
10 October 2017
The Aim of Man
In all theories of relationship, Sigmund Freud's Oedipus Rex's complex has been the most studied, it has also sparked a lot of debate. Freud used the study result of a boy in 1909 in his analysis, he described the 5-year-old boys fear for horses because of a feeling of anger he had developed internally and relating to his parents. He theorized that little boys usually choose their mother primarily for sexual interest, he said they subconsciously wish to expropriate their fathers and become their mothers' lover. Freud theorized that this behavior is usually observed in children between the ages of 3 - 5 when the child is in a stage he called the phallic stage of development. Since the child suspects that his actions based on these feelings will lead to danger and his desires will be repressed, leading to anxiety. This analogy, the Oedipus Rex's complex is named after Sophocles' protagonist who obliviously murders his father to marry his mother.
I find Sigmund Freud's theory about Oedipus Rex's complex a tragedy of destiny. His theory is widely misinterpreted by many as a sexual thing, but I see it from a different perspective. In fact, this theory is considered in the science world today as irrelevant. If I were to liken this to my personal experience, i am more affectionate towards my mum than to my dad. I spend most times having a chat with my mother than i do with my father. I am an
According to Freud's psychosexual stages of development, successful resolution of the Oedipus complex leads to _____
Oedipus complex stage is a child’s desire of a sexual gratification of the opposite sex of the parental figure. To resolve tis unconscious conflict of fear and erotic desire within one must characterize themselves with whom they want to be and what they desire. Sigmund Freud believed that little girls had penis envy. In later days men had higher rank than women. Girls were thought to first have a sexual attachment to their mother which eventually transferred to the father in hopes to somehow obtain a penis. According to Freud “Classic Theories and Modern
Differently to what is thought nowadays, the Oedipus complex described by Freud goes beyond just the son 's desire to have sex with his mother. The Oedipus complex includes the teenager 's psychosexual idea of feeling jealousy, anger, and above all, competing with his father. Besides, Freud’s theory emphasizes that boys select their mother as their principal object of desire, and subconsciously wish to usurp or even murder their fathers in order to gain exclusive possession of her and become their mothers ' lover.
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’s theory of personality examined the interplay between the primitive, instinctual urges—the ‘id’; the practical and rational ‘ego’; and the morally attuned ‘superego’; ‘object relations’ refer to the "object" of an instinct”, which is “the agent through which the instinctual aim is achieved”—most often a person and, according to Freud, most often the mother (Ainsworth 1969, p. 1). The psychosexual development theory that Freud launched reduces our behaviour to mechanistic responses to an instinctive need for pleasure fueled by the ‘libido’ and barriers or distortions to the gratification of the libido at various delineated stages of development were responsible for later problems in life (Kail & Zolner 2012, p. 5). Erik Erikson later added depth to the approach by including more humanistic elements to Freud’s stages and including more periods of development (p.
The Oedipus conflict or complex is a concept developed by Sigmund Freud to explain the origin of certain psychological disorders in childhood. It is defined as a child's unconscious desire for the exclusive love of the parent of the opposite sex. This desire includes jealousy toward the parent of the same sex and the unconscious wish for that parent's death. Horney states that it is not a “biologically given phenomenon” but rather a response to the “provocation’s” of the outside world.(Horney)
One of Freuds most famous experiments was 'Little Hans'. This was about a five year old boy who was afraid of horses, and was jealous of the birth of his sister. It was thought that Hans' anxiety culminated from his inner desire to be his mothers mate. Freud used Hans in order to help develop another of his theories - the 'Oedipus Complex' which is a small boys inner jealousy of his father and fear of punishment by castration by him. It must be stressed that the
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
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 complex is a psychoanalytic theory denotes the ideas that deals with a child’s sexual desire for the opposing sex parent. The Metamorphosis has many examples of Oedipus complex, however one example is dominant. In an
Though this theory is being criticized, it is still important because many other theories are based
Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory is one out of four major theories that have contributed to relevancy of human sexuality. Freud coined the notion that irrational forces, unconscious motivations, biological and instinctual drives that evolve over time are the cause for human behavior (Corey, 2013). Freud believed that parent-child interactions within childhood develops a person’s unique character type. In childhood pleasure is maximized to satisfy the demands of the id impulses, while the parent’s main focus is integrating the demands of reality and the concept of what is right and wrong. Human personality in Freud’s
According to Freud, every male child, before the puberty stage, that is, in the third stage, which he calls the “Phallic Stage”, has got affectionate feelings for his mother, and seeing the father in possession of the mother, develops a feeling of bitterness towards his father. The little ego of the boy makes him see his father as a stronger force, which is there where it wants to be – beside the mother. In Freud’s words,
The Oedipal complex originally refers to the sexual desire of a son for his mother and does not have to be reciprocated (Wikipedia). This short story written by Frank O’Connor and its entitled “my Oedipus complex” in which he describes a young boy called Larry experience. In this essay, a comparison between the short story and the four stages of development suggested by