Definition Of The Oedipus Complex Essay Research

Definition Of The Oedipus Complex Essay, Research Paper

Definition of the Oedipus Complex

February 1, 1997

Michelle Bauknecht

The positive libidinal feelings of a child to the parent of the opposite

sex and hostile or jealous feelings toward the parent of the same sex that may

be a source of adult personality disorder when unresolved. It is a pattern of

profound emotional ambivalence, a troublesome mixture of love and hate.

The Oedipus Complex occurs during the phallic stage, from roughly ages

3-6 years. Freud believed that during this stage boys seek genital stimulation

and develop both unconscious desires for their mother and jealousy and hatred

for their father, whom they consider a rival. It was said that boys felt guilt

and lurking fear that their father would punish them, such as by castration.

Freud also believed that conscience and gender identity form as the child

resolved the Oedipus Complex at age 5 or 6, but this actually happens earlier.

A child tends to become strongly masculine or feminine without even having the

same sex parent present.

Freud argues that all sons unconsciously desire to kill, even if they

love, their fathers. He found his own unconscious wish to murder his father in

his intensive self analysis in 1897, shortly after the death of his father.

Freud says it is only the male child that we find the fateful

combination of love for the one parent and simultaneous hatred for the other as

a rival. Freud believed Oedipal was a normal part of human psychological growth

and it is during this stage children produce emotional conflicts.

Other psychoanalysts believed that girls experience a parallel called

the “Electra Complex”. This comes from a Greek legend of a women named Electra

who helped plan the murder of her mother.

The Oedipus Complex originates from a myth about a Greek hero named

Oedipus, written by Sophocles. Oedipus was the son of Laius and Jocasta who in

the fulfillment of an oracle unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother.

When Oedipus and Jocasta realize what has happened, Jocasta hangs herself and

he rips the golden brooches from his dead mothers gown and plunges them deep

into his eyes. Now blinded, he finally sees the truth and banishes himself to a

distant land. The fact that Oedipus kills his father and sleeps with his mother

without knowing that he has done either shows that it was done—unconsciously.

THEORY:

If a subject in the experimental group shows more aggressive behavior

toward his father and increased affectionate behavior toward their mother after

receiving the subliminal messages and the control group shows no increase when

shown neutral messages, then it will be proven that the Oedipus Complex does in

fact exist in the unconscious. To prove this we bring the behavior out from the

unconscious to the sub conscious through the subliminal messages. These boys

have repressed these feelings for so long because it is too painful for them to

deal with.

HYPOTHESIS:

Ho: Boys in the experimental group will not increase their aggression

to their fathers or more affection for their mothers after receiving subliminal

messages. (no change)

Hi: Boys in the experimental group receiving subliminal messages will

show more aggression toward their father and demonstrate more affection for

their mother’s. The control group will not demonstrate a changed behavior

(Change in behavior)

OPERATIONAL HYPOTHESIS:

Independent Variable: Experimental group receiving subliminal messages,

either aggressive, affectionate or neutral.

Dependent Variable: The change in behavior observed from before the

subliminal messages to after.

METHOD:

I evaluated 10 heterosexual boys from the Winnipeg area, all who were

between the ages of 15 and 18 and still living at home with both parents. As the

head psychologist in the experiment I entered into an agreement w/ the

participants that clarified the nature of the research and the responsibilities

for both them and myself. The participants were informed that they could

withdraw from the experiment at anytime. Questions about the study were asked

(participants were told the experiment was a visual test of some sort),

therefore deception was being used. After obtaining informed consent to

participate (those under age had a consent signed by their guardian) we randomly

broke the boys and their families into two groups. One became the control group

and the other the experimental group. I then proceeded to observe the families

interaction with each other, particularily between the son and his mother and

the son and his father. Observations were made through hidden cameras in the

house (field research) for the first week (Monday to Friday). This was to

provide a baseline measure. I was looking specifically for any type of rivalry <

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