Why Is Oedipus Complex Important as a Source of Neuroses - Term Paper Example

Oedipus complex Oedipus complex is phrase coined by Sigmund Freud in his theory of psychosexual stages to explain the feelings of desire of a boy towards his mother and those of anger and jealous towards his father. In other words, the Oedipus complex symbolizes the ideas and emotions that are kept by the mind in the unconscious, through dynamic repression, which deliberates upon the desire of a boy to relate sexually with the mother, or a girl desiring to relate with her father, a process known as Electra complex. Freud alleged that the Oedipus, usually is a desire for the opposite sex parent in both sexes (Stephens, 1962). Oedipus is the name of Greek mythological star, Oedipus, who in 5th century BC unintentionally murders his father, King Laius and ends up marrying his mother queen Jocasta. Oedipus Rex is a play written by Sophocles in 429 BC, based on this myth. Sigmund Freud attended modern staging of the Sophocles’ play in Vienna and Paris in the 19th century where they were astoundingly successful. Freud first proposed an oedipal longing was universal, and that it is a psychological experience inherent to humans something that caused a lot of unconscious guilt. Freud arrived on this conclusion after analysing his feelings while in attendance of the play, his sketchy observations of normal or neurotic children and finally on the fact that the play was successful on both modern as well as ancient audiences(Malinowski,2001). Thus the Oedipus complex happens in the 3rd –phallic stage, which ranges from 3-6 years, normally of the 5 psychosexual development phases; the oral, anal, phallic, latent and finally genital-whereby the basis of libidinal pleasure is in another erogenous region of the body of the infant. In Freud’s classical psychoanalytic theory, an infant’s recognition of similar-sex parent is the effective resolving of the Oedipus complex as well as the Electra complex. In actuality; this is a major psychological experience which is essential for the advancement of a mature identity as well as sexual role (Villick & Richards, 2013). Freud in addition, further, put forth a proposal that girls and boys have different experiences of the complexes; girls in penis envy form and boys in castration anxiety form. Freud further suggested that unsuccessful resolving of the complexes may result into pedophilia, neurosis, as well as homosexuality. Men that are fixated in the oedipal stages of their psychosexual progress may be referred as “mother-fixated” whereas for the girls it may be known as “father-fixated”. This in later life may result in choosing a partner who resembles one’s parent (Freud, 1962). The Oedipus complex, according to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, normally happens when a child is at the phallic stage (3-5 years) of psychosexual growth, during the formation of the ego as well as the libido, even though it may manifest itself at a much earlier age in life. At the phallic stage, the Oedipus complex is the boy’s influential psychosexual experience-which basically is the son-father competition for ownership of mother. This stage particularly marks the 3rd stage in psychosexual development when the boy’s or girl’s genitalia is their key erogenous zone; therefore when boys and girls become conscious of their bodies, as well as those of other children, in addition to their parents’ bodies, they start gratifying physical curiosity by not only exploring but also undressing themselves, one another ,as well as their genitals, thus in the process learning the anatomic distinctions between females and males as well as the gender distinctions between girl and boy(Freud,1962). Regardless of the mother being the person who basically satisfies the child’s needs, still the child starts structuring distinct sexual identity-girl or boy-that changes the dynamics of the child-parent connection; the parents primarily turn out to be objects of childish libidinal energy. Thus the boy child expresses his sexual desire (libido) on his mother, but expresses his emotional rivalry and jealousy against his own father-since it is the father who usually sleeps with his own mother. Furthermore, to ease union with mother, the id (one of the 3 aspects of the psychic apparatus as explained by Sigmund Freud, that is a set of awkward instinctual tendencies), of the boy desires to eradicate his father, (just like Oedipus).However, the realistic ego (aims at pleasing the id’s force in ways that are realistic and beneficial in the long run instead of grief) on the basis of the principle of reality, is aware that his father is physically powerful of the 2 males in competition for possession of the same female. Nevertheless, the boy continues being unsure of his father’s position in the family, that generally is exhibited as fear of being castrated by the physically bigger father. This fear is unfounded, subconscious exhibition of the childish id. Freud argues that the boy experiences the so called castration anxiety which primarily is the fear of both figurative and literal emasculation. He believed that as the boy becomes conscious of the physical variations between females and males, he makes an assumption that the mother’s penis has been eradicated and that he will also be castrated by the father as well being punishment for longing for his mother. For the boy to solve the clash, he mostly identifies with his own father. This is the point of formation of the super-ego. The super-ego turns out to be kind of inner moral guidance, an internalizing of the father figure which endeavors to repress the desires of the id in addition to making the ego operate on these unrealistic standards. In matters id and ego, the super-ego maintains the father’s character whereas, the stronger Oedipus complex was as well as the more quickly surrendered to suppression (under the pressure of reading, schooling, and religious teaching), the firm will be the dominion of the super-ego above the ego afterwards (Freud, 1962). In both the male and female sexes, defense mechanisms offer transient decisions of the disagreement between id drives and ego drives. One of the initial defense mechanisms is repression, which involves emotional impulses, memory blocking as well as conscious mind ideas, even though its action does not determine the id-ego clash. Identification is the 2nd defense mechanism, whereby the girl and or boy child uses by integrating, to their (super) ego, which is the personality feature of the parent of the same-sex. Because of this, the boy child reduces his castration nervousness, since his similarity to the father guards him from his father’s anger in their maternal challenge (Britton & Feldman, 2005). Freud, further, argues that unsettled son-father rivalry for the psycho-sexual ownership of the mother may lead to phallic stage obsession thus resulting in the boy turning out to be over-ambitious, aggressive as well as an ineffective man. This therefore implies that adequate parental resolution as well as handling of the Oedipus complex is very significant in the development of the male childish super-ego. The reason for this being, that the boy child fully internalizes morality by identifying with his father, thereby choosing to conform to the rules of society instead of reflexively conforming in fear of being punished (Britton & Feldman, 2005). In conclusion, the Oedipus complex is important for Freud as the source of neuroses, because the culturally intolerable wants of an infant have to be suppressed in adulthood. Freud’s constructs, for instance, the Oedipus complex and the unconscious, when they were initially conceived, pitted personal, intolerable, sexual needs against societal constraints. After Freud developed his tripartite theory (id, ego and superego), civilization demands came to be constructed into the topic in the superego form. The reasoning behind Freud’s manner of reasoning is structural; the accidental issues that are encountered by an individual do not result in neurosis. Instead, Freud placed private instincts and desires in resistance to civilization demands. Consequently, the Oedipus complex is not experienced by just a small number of neurotic individuals, but is a universal characteristic of human condition (Britton & Feldman, 2005). Inspite of Freud’s persistence that he was generating new science, recognition of his theories, mainly of the Oedipus complex, has been limited largely in such disciplines as humanities since Freud’s theories cannot be proved scientifically. Whereas the general public and critics may question the authenticity of assumptions made by Freud, that such a varied array of problems arise from unsettled sexual conflicts amongst prepubescent children, the idea of the Oedipus complex still drew interest; firing the imagination of humans far and wide. Such popularity has been attributed to the period in which Freud was writing .Freud’s work, initially, seemed to provide freedom from hypocrisy, prudishness as well as tyrannical institutionalized religion. Freud’s theory as the cause of neuroses has never been entirely accepted even within mental health spheres. It has been claimed by the anthropologists on the basis of their research that this phenomenon is not widespread; there are other factors which are more important. The idea of oedipal feelings in regard to neuroses as divergence from true human personality has been rejected by a wide range of scientists, theologians as well as scholars. However, Freud’s fundamental concepts that our babyhood occurrences are significant later in life ,resulted in key developments in psychology, in addition to continuing to have a big impact on our appreciation of human personality(Villick & Richards, 2013). Works cited Read More