Oedipus complex

[ ed-uh-puhs kom-pleks, ee-duh- ]

noun

, Psychoanalysis.

1. an unconscious sexual desire directed toward a parent of a different gender, especially by a son toward his mother, usually originating in childhood and expressed through rivalry with the other parent. Compare Electra complex.

Oedipus complex

noun

1. psychoanal a group of emotions, usually unconscious, involving the desire of a child, esp a male child, to possess sexually the parent of the opposite sex while excluding the parent of the same sex Compare Electra complex

Oedipus complex

1. In Freudian theory, the unconscious desire of a young child for sexual intercourse with the parent of the opposite sex, especially between boys and their mothers ( see genital stage ). Followers of the psychologist Sigmund Freud long believed that the Oedipus complex was common to all cultures , although many psychiatrists now refute this belief. The Oedipus complex is named after the mythical Oedipus , who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother.

Derived Forms

• ˈoedipal, adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of Oedipus complex¹

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

His thinking is more aligned with that of literary scholar Harold Bloom, who contended that poems beget other poems, in a network of influence that owes as much to Darwin’s theory of evolution as to Freud’s notion of the Oedipus complex.

From Los Angeles Times

Sigmund Freud no doubt would have chalked up Macbeth’s problems here to his unresolved Oedipus complex.

From Los Angeles Times

But to Amy that makes him look like a soft boi with an Oedipus complex instead of "the better man."

From Salon

In 1918, she began designing marionettes for staging of a commedia dell’arte play called “King Stag,” a classic Dada performance in which the slightly surreal puppets, confected from tubes, cones and masklike oval faces, included characters such as Freudanalyticus and Dr. Oedipus Complex.

From Washington Post

Taeuber-Arp, Dada’s only Swiss member, threw herself into its satirical indictments, above all through the most delightful objects here: loose-limbed, pared-down marionettes from a parodic play, “King Stag,” in the form of courtiers and palace guards, parrots and deer, and kings of the unconscious named Freudanalyticus and Dr. Oedipus Complex.

From New York Times