Oedipus_Complex

Oedipus Complex One of the major discoveries made by Sigmund Freud was his theory called the Oedipus complex. This theory is also one of the most controversial theories Freud is associated with. What Freud meant by the Oedipus complex is rather simple to understand. The little boy begins to develop a sexual attachment and desire for his mother. He wants her, and in the mind of the boy the father becomes a rival. Hostility toward the boy’s father grows and he wants to replace him, and even do away with him. The boy fears his rival father’s ability to castrate him thus taking away his prize possession, the penis (Fromm 1980). The Oedipus complex can include the relationship of daughter and father, but for the purposes of this essay we will focus on the individual relationships between a son and each parent figure (mother and father assumingly). One may think this theory to be possible for a small few, but are quick to claim they do not and never have had a sexual attachment to their mother. But Freud claimed in a letter written to his colleague Wilhelm Fliess, “I have found…the phenomena of oedipus, mother, father, freud, boy, one, son, attachment, sigmund, relationship, life, child, between, sexual, breger, desire, complex, 2000, rivalry, responsibility, love, just, fromm, even, birth, 1980, toward, time, theory, patriarch, own, oppression, months, feelings