Freud on the Oedipus complex.

By: Martin Pierce                                                                     Student Number: 1057404

Word count: 2000

Introduction

For Freud the pre-oedipal individual is polymorphously perverse and incestuous in its desires. It is only by successfully negotiating the Oedipus complex that each individual becomes a subject with a firm sense of gender and has their sexual desires guided into a non-incestuous and heterosexual form (Freud, 1905). Freud considered this to be one of psychoanalysis’s greatest discoveries.

“It has justly been said that the Oedipus complex is the nuclear complex of the neuroses, and constitutes the essential part of their content. It represents the peak of infantile sexuality, which, through its after-effects, exercises a decisive influence on the sexuality of adults. Every new arrival on this planet is faced with the task of mastering the Oedipus complex; anyone who fails to do so falls a victim to neurosis. With the progress of psycho-analytic studies the importance of the Oedipus complex has become more and more clearly evident; its recognition has become the shibboleth that distinguishes the adherents of psycho-analysis from its opponents” (Freud, 1905, p.149)

The purpose of this paper is to explore what occurs during this complex and to show why it is so important to individual development.

The Oedipus complex

To understand the role of the Oedipus complex we must differentiate between its action in boys and girls as the psychical mechanisms are different for both (Freud, 1905). However for both sexes an individual’s entry into the Oedipus complex develops naturally from the phallic phase.

At some point in the phallic stage the boy discovers phallic masturbation; he has begun to feel pleasurable sensations from his sexual organ and by a process of manual stimulation has learnt to produce these at will. His libidinal energy has been transferred to his genitals. He directs this phallic activity toward the mother as she is his primary love object. He now sees himself as his mother’s lover, and wishes to possess her sexually. The directing of his phallic activity towards the mother is an attempt to seduce her (Freud, 1940). As a result of this sexual love for his mother the boy wishes to remove his father as his rival for his mother's love, more specifically, he wants to kill his father. He seeks to take his father's place with the mother so that he can have sole sexual possession of her.

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According to Freud during this phase of phallic masturbation the mother decides that this is not a proper way to behave and decides that it should not be allowed to continue. She forbids him from handling his genitals. However her ban has little effect. The mother then threatens to remove the object from him. Freud says that the mother informs the boy that a man, either his father or the doctor will cut his penis off if he does not stop playing with it (Freud, 1940). Even with this explicit threat there is no perceivable difference in the boy’s behaviour ...

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