Joaquín Díaz Atienza
Introduction
Having provided the very brief description of some stages of psychosexual development, our work would be entirely incomplete if we did not briefly discuss what is meant by Oedipus complex.
For Sigmund Freud, the Oedipus complex is the core process upon which our future personality is built and shaped. And J. Laplanche defines it as "an organized set of loving and hostile desires that the child experiences with respect to his parents."
Several forms of presentation of the Oedipus complex have been described: The positive form, the negative form, and the complete form.
- The positive form It is characterized by the existence of loving feelings on the part of the child towards the parental figure of the opposite sex, and of rivalry, jealousy and hatred towards the figure of the same sex.
- The negative form It is when love is experienced towards the same-sex parental figure. And
- The complete form This is defined as the situation in which feelings of love/hate are not so clearly focused on one of the parental figures, but rather can fluctuate, with greater or lesser intensity, toward one or the other. This is perhaps the most frequent form. In fact, Freud considered the simple form an excessively reductionist view of the Oedipus complex. Typically, in the triangular relationship that constitutes the Oedipus complex, we find that the child not only experiences love toward the mother figure, but we can also observe that the child exhibits "feminine, seductive, and tender" behaviors toward the father. For Freud, these behaviors indicate the coexistence of homo- and heterosexual elements in the child, and not merely the result of seduction or rivalry.
Freud, due to the contributions of the psychoanalysts, came to admit the existence of a pre-Oedipal phase"The stage of psychosexual development prior to the Oedipus complex, in which the bond with the mother predominates in both sexes" (J. Laplanche). In this phase, the paternal figure is not perceived as a rival in any case.
Functions of the Oedipus Complex
It lies at the heart of human psychosexual development. Most researchers consider it universal, as well as one of its fundamental principles: the incest taboo.
During the Oedipus complex, the choice of love object is formed, a decision that will be made after puberty. This orientation and object selection occurs through cathexis.1It involves the identification processes typical of the Oedipus complex and the prohibition against committing incest.
Likewise, and as we have anticipated, it plays a fundamental role in shaping personality, the ego ideal, and the superego.
Overcoming the phallic vision during the Oedipus complex leads to access to genitality. This occurs through the processes of identification and overcoming the crisis of the Oedipus complex. For Freud, overcoming the Oedipal crisis does not occur through a mere mechanism of repression, but rather through its destruction or suppression. When the crisis is "resolved" solely through repressive mechanisms, psychopathological symptoms will inevitably arise.
The Importance of the Oedipus Complex
The important aspect of the Oedipus complex is not the actual situation that arises between the child and the parental figures, but rather the prohibition against satisfying certain primary inclinations. Here, with the prohibition, as Lacan says, the conjunction of desire and the law occurs. For Freud, as well as for other later anthropologists (e.g., Malinowski), the important aspect of the universal prohibition of incest that is the condition sine qua non to produce culture and what differentiates us from animals (nature). (This aspect, central to Freud, will be challenged by some philosophers of the Frankfurt School (e.g., Marcuse)
In the Oedipal triangulation, not only the child and their drives are involved, but also the unconscious desires of the parents, their fantasies and desires, seduction, and the relationship between both parental figures.
Other concepts
Karl Jung introduced the concept of Electra complex in an attempt to draw an analogy between what happens in a girl and what happens in a boy. However, Freud did not accept such an analogy.
Linked to the Oedipus complex, the concept of castration anxiety This process typically progresses from the stage where the boy believes his mother has a penis to genuine castration anxiety. It is precisely this fear that facilitates the renunciation of the loving relationship with the mother in the face of the fantasy and fear of castration. In girls, the situation is more complex and slower, and is resolved through processes of identification.
Finally, it is acknowledged that the Oedipal stage will decisively shape identity and orientation. Ultimately, being will matter more than having; being a man or a woman, more than having a penis or a vagina.
- J. Laplache and JB Pontalis. Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. Eti Labor. Madrid. 1968.
- Golse. The affective and intellectual development of the child. Masson Publishing House. Barcelona. 1987.
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