Oedipus complex - is the theory of Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, the unconscious desire in young children sexually possess his mother and kill his father. Although the theory may seem rather strange, many psychologists believe that it identifies and explains a vital aspect of our psychosexual development.

Who is the Oedipus

The hero of Greek myth, as well as the play "Oedipus the King" written by Sophocles in 429 BC, by the name of Oedipus unwittingly kills his father and marries his mother. The story of Oedipus and served as the basis of Freud's theory.

The complex

Sigmund Freud's theory of the Oedipus complex describes the thoughts and emotions that exist in the field of unconscious children. Freud believed that this complex is found in children of both sexes. According to Freud, the Oedipus complex children experience during which he called "the phallic stage of development" (the third of the five stages of psychosexual development of children as defined by Freud), aged from three to six years. During this important stage of Freud's theory, the child's genitals are the main source of his pleasure, and during this period the child is aware of itself sexual being.

During this period, as Freud thought, the child identifies himself as a boy or as a girl and begins to recognize the social differences between men and women. This awareness, in Freud's view, changes the relationship between the child and his parents. Children direct their developing sexual desire to begin to see the mother and father in the opponent for the love and attention of the mother.

Thus, the child unconsciously wishes to possess his mother sexually as, in their view, does the father, and subconsciously wants to eliminate his father. Freud believed that children, however, are aware that more of their fathers, and that can not be repaired. This awareness is a strong subconscious anxiety in children. This alarm is always unconscious, manifested in boys and girls in different ways: in boys, she pours in the castration complex - a deep unconscious fear that their more powerful fathers take away their courage to deal with the threat that they pose in the fight for the attention of the mother. In girls, this concern is expressed in the penis envy - a deep hostility to the father of masculinity, which, as they realize they do not have.

Freud believed that this unconscious defense mechanisms that children use to solve their "Oedipal anxieties." These mechanisms include repression, in which the child is fenced off from the pulse of the mind, desires and thoughts associated with their identification and the Oedipus complex, through which the child begins to acquire the features of its parent's gender. Freud believed that acquiring traits of his father and identifying with him, the boy decreases their inner fear of castration because the similarities with his father to protect him from the wrath of his father in the rivalry for the mother. Identifying himself with his mother, the girl puts himself on a par with someone who also do not have a penis, and thus no longer has positioned them as antagonists.

Freud believed that if the Oedipus complex remains unresolved and the child is unable to move to the next stage of psychosexual development, the boy will be aggressive macho man Macho: errors and problems in behavior And any girl would be too lewd or submissive men. Children who are stuck at the stage of the Oedipus complex, according to Freud, may be too attached to his mother and father in adulthood, leading to a number of other psychological problems.

Freud believed that parents are responsible for the correct resolution of the Oedipus complex in their children. They should let their children of the same sex to identify with them and to learn how to copy their behavior and to behave in society. In doing so, parents help their children form a super-ego that is their internal moral values, as well as the adoption of elements of the behavior of its parent's gender.

Development of the theory of the Oedipus complex

Freud developed his theory of the Oedipus complex in the late 19th century, having a deep analysis of his childhood and his relationship with his parents .  While he examined his own feelings towards their parents, the play "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles was on stage throughout Europe and enjoyed great popularity and interest .  Freud believed that the stunning popularity of the play within the previous twenty-five centuries, is evidence of the existence of the Oedipus complex in all epochs of Western civilization .  Freud believed that part of the appeal of the Oedipus story was that it points to the subconscious anxiety that most adults experience in your life .  Many years later, Freud found evidence of the Oedipus complex in the subconscious and the unconscious of many patients he had treated by a variety of psychological disorders .  Freud discovered that many of his patients suffered from unresolved Oedipus complex due to the fact that it is not identified with the parents of their gender and have not developed the super-ego .

The importance of the theory of the Oedipus complex

Oedipus complex - a vital aspect of Freud's theory about our psychosexual development. Although Freud's theory might seem rather strange, and perhaps a little awkward for us, however, it served as the basis of the theory of how children develop sexually and psychologically. Oedipus complex also offers a theory about how children develop their own internal moral values, as well as about the role parents play in helping them to develop them and become psychologically healthy adults.

Despite the fact that the concept may seem to most of us was a strange, think about it: you do not compete ever with one of your parents? If you - a woman, you do not play with dolls, playing the role of a mother, just like your mother behaved towards you or your brother or sister? If you are - man, are you trying to dress or behave like your father? If you do this, Freud would say that through these actions you are trying to resolve your own children's Oedipus complex.