Home > Categories > Medicine > Psychology > Psychology and Psychiatry > Oedipus complex

Oedipus complex

From: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | Date: 2008

Oedipus complex Freudian term, drawn from the myth of Oedipus , designating attraction on the part of the child toward the parent of the opposite sex and rivalry and hostility toward the parent of its own. It occurs during the phallic stage of the psycho-sexual development of the personality, approximately years three to five. Resolution of the Oedipus complex is believed to occur by identification with the parent of the same sex and by the renunciation of sexual interest in the parent of the opposite sex. Freud considered this complex the cornerstone of the superego and the nucleus of all human relationships. Many psychiatrists, while acknowledging the significance of the Oedipal relationships to personality development in our culture, ascribe love and attraction toward one parent and hatred and antagonism toward the other not necessarily to sexual rivalry but to resentment of parental authoritarian power.

Author not available, OEDIPUS COMPLEX., The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2008

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press

For permission to reuse this article, contact Copyright Clearance Center.

Related articles from HighBeam Research:

	Panel II: The Oedipus Complex, the Primal Scene, and the Superego Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy; 7/1/2006; Ellman, Carolyn; Gould, Laurence; 10263 words; Question 1: The idea of the Oedipus complex is central to both Freudians ... Steve Ellman The idea of the Oedipus complex is not as central to this Freudian ... variation on the theme of the Oedipus complex, though it not so surprise that ...
	The split personality of 'Oedipus Complex'. Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL); 5/10/2007; 702 words; ... Sigmund Freud articulated his Oedipus complex -- wherein a boy feels his first ... Freud's own writings on the Oedipus complex to create, and title, an original ... building. cjones5@tribune.com - - - Oedipus Complex When: Through June 3 Where ...
	Dr. Freud, I presume? A pair of piercing new dramas are steeped in Freudian thought.(Critic's Notebook)(Oedipus Complex)(Singing Forest)(Critical Essay) American Theatre; 10/1/2004; Berson, Misha; 2785 words; ... mother fixation in Frank Galati's Oedipus Complex, at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival ... Austro-American family. And in Oedipus Complex, Dr. Freud yields much of the ... backstory. But, in varying ways, Oedipus Complex and Singing Forest do consider ...
	Oedipus Complex.(Theater review) Daily Variety; 5/9/2007; Oxman, Steven; 774 words; ... dramatically languid, Frank Galati's Oedipus Complex adapts the famed Sophoclean ... what will come to be called the Oedipus complex. The Sophocles play then begins ... only get a little bit of Freud, Oedipus Complex is most interesting in how it ...
	A window to fractured psyches; Riveting 'Oedipus Complex' forces us to acknowledge our twisted urges Chicago Sun-Times; 5/9/2007; Hedy Weiss; 483 words; 'OEDIPUS COMPLEX' highly Recommended When ... Galati's fascinating "Oedipus Complex" -- which opened Monday ... Sophocles' Greek tragedy "Oedipus Rex," in which a man is ... mother), the story of Oedipus (Ben Viccellio, sensual ...
	When did you last be your father? It was Sigmund Freud, the pioneer of psychoanalysis, who first identified the Oedipus complex. This is a stage of young men's development named after a Greek myth in which the hero murders his father and marries his mother. Grimsby Telegraph; 10/5/2007; 431 words; ... who first identified the Oedipus complex. This is a stage of young ... away support. But it's the Oedipus thing that crops up again ... For supporters, too, the complex and sometimes troublesome ... in the dug-out. So if the Oedipus myth is all about men growing ...
	Psychiatrist puts Jesus on the couch A controversial study claims that Christ had an Oedipus complex, reports Clare Garner The Independent - London; 8/23/1998; Clare Garner; 875 words; ... human that he suffered from an Oedipus complex, went through a stage of adolescent ... which the resolution of the Oedipus complex allows a boy to withdraw from ... satisfactory completion of the Oedipus complex". And Jesus survived 40 days ...
	Everything you wanted to know about Freud but were afraid to ask You've heard of the id, the ego and the Oedipus complex, but what does the father of psychoanalysis have to offer you 2? As a new English translation of Sigmund Freud's work is about to be published, Gyles Brandreth interprets the jargon The Sunday Telegraph London; 5/12/2002; GYLES BRANDRETH; 1931 words; ... subject) - but until this week, beyond the obvious (the Oedipus Complex, the id, the ego and penis envy), I knew very little ... Sophocles. Later, he used the Greek dramatist's story of Oedipus - who inadvertently married his mother and killed a ...
	The Oedipus complex.(PSYCHOSEXUAL THEORY OF THE MONTH) Esquire; 2/1/2007; Raab, Scott; 379 words; ... purposely pissed in his parents' boudoir. Thing is, the depressive Viennese motherfucker was on the money with the Oedipus complex--absolutely nailed it. Not that you'd ever know it from reading the parboiled dim-witticisms of any post-Spock parenting ...
	Oedipus complex was a tricky knot for Houdini to untie The Scotsman; 1/4/2006; Susan Mansfield; 776 words; ... Houdini's most dangerous tricks - to get to grips with a complex script exploring psychoanalysis. The life of Houdini and ... are quite dated," Eatough says. "When people talk about the Oedipus complex, how everything relates to the mother and father, the formative ...
	Oedipus complex: Bush using Iraq to remove himself from father's shadow Charleston Gazette; 6/30/2004; H. John Rogers; 1476 words; ... his Interpretation of Dreams, Freud positioned the Oedipus complex as the primary dynamic in the male persona. It is ... His hesitation underscores the second part of the Oedipus complex which is that the Oedipal feelings are largely repressed ...
	Cameron's Oedipus complex The Sunday Telegraph London; 1/8/2006; Nigel Farndale; 635 words; ... mortgage. So what can Mr Cameron be up to? There are a number of possible explanations. The first is that he has an Oedipus complex. He wants - you could argue that he needs - to kill the parents. He started with Margaret Thatcher, the grocer's ...
	Health: `Look, mate, whether or not I'm a walking Oedipus complex is no concern of yours' The Independent - London; 2/3/1998; Phil Hammond; 501 words; ... repressed jealousy of your father's sexual access to your mother. . ." "Look, mate, whether or not I'm a walking Oedipus complex is no concern of yours." "So you're familiar with Freud then?" "Only enough to know he vas no scientist. Most of ...
	`Oedipus' a complex tale that explores ambition.(Arts and Lifestyle) The Boston Herald; 5/14/2004; Nesti, Robert; 599 words; ... investigate its source. No, this isn't a breaking news story, it's Oedipus the King, Sophocles' 2,500-year-old drama, receiving ... Woodruff to want to stage the tragedy, simply called Oedipus, which ends his second season as the company's artistic ... leader victimized by his own ambition. In the play, ...
	'Oedipus' gets complex in updated classic.(Theater Review) Variety; 8/8/2005; Blankenship, Mark; 679 words; OFF BROADWAY OEDIPUS AT PALM SPRINGS (NEW YORK THEATER WORKSHOP ... Healey Not content with just pity and fear, Oedipus at Palm Springs evokes laughter and longing ... Sophodean, but even at its classical apex, Oedipus at Palm Springs remains a show by the ...