Seduction Theory In Medea

The Lingering of the Repressed
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, also known as PTSD, was recognized as a disorder with specific symptoms and was added to the Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1980. However, prior to this acknowledgement, father of psychology, Sigmund Freud, had already developed a theory on it. Freud’s Seduction theory states: “both forgotten childhood trauma and a variety of adult stresses could cause neurosis”, such as we have seen in Euripides’s Medea; in which Medea acted irrationally after having gone through traumatic events. Whether it was Freud in the 1890s or Euripides in 430 BC the idea that PTSD is present in one’s daily live has always been a suggestion.
As Jacobs’s contribution to the American Journal of Psychotherapy named it, the “Medea Complex” (Jacobs. 2). The Medea Complex is the explanation for the downfall of Medea and her family. The famous Greek tragedy begins with Medea’s

childhood nurse addressing the elements, to which she reveals all her deepest wishes, further giving the reader an insight to the state of Medea; explaining the distress Medea feels after being left alone by the man she devoted her life to love and please.
Medea betrayed her homeland by brutally dismembering her brother in order to bring aid to Jason’s retrieval of the fleece, she then convinced the daughters of Pelias to kill him in order to help Jason, she turned her back on everyone that she loved because the love she had for Jason was so much stronger.

All her efforts, only to be betrayed by the man she loved the most. Unfortunately, her misery did not end with the betrayal. She sought revenge on the traitor that carried no guilt and felt that Medea’s sex was to blame, for she was the one that had been weak and acted out of love for so many years. After much thought and self-conflict, she decided to murder the new bride of her former husband and taking the life of her own children. Euripides made Jason’s character to be self-centered and having “a minimum capacity to understand the feelings of others” (Jacobs). Leading Medea to commit a most horrible act, knowing that it would at last cause Jason the same pain that he had cause her: she murdered their

children.
Euripides’s Medea largely focuses on the present day misfortune of Jason’s and Medea’s life, however it does give insight to their past:
Medea: Then I killed Pelias, in the way that he would die most tragically
At the hands of his own children and I confounded their entire house.
And you, after receiving this from me, you, the vilest man alive,
you have betrayed me, and you have made a new marriage,
(lines 485-488).
This is where Medea’s Complex comes into play, according to Jacobs, all of the traumatic events that Medea witnessed in her earlier years, the murder of many and the patterns her mother followed, brought her to do such a nasty thing as hurt her own children. Jacobs conducted a study of present day divorces in order to prove his theory. He came to meet Mr. and former Mrs. A, the couple had five children and had been divorced for a year after coming to Jacob’s knowledge. Mr. A had approached Jacobs in hope that the relationship with his ex-wife would better enough that Mr. A could see his children. Jacobs had sessions with both Mr. and Mrs. A in order to fully understand the issue.
When the couple had met, Mrs. A had felt an immediate attraction towards Mr. A, while Mr. A felt no physical attraction towards his future wife. Nevertheless, they began to date, which resulted in Mrs. A “accidental” pregnancy. The couple agreed to get married, however, Mr. A made it clear to Mrs. A that he still did not love her. He went on to tell her this throughout the years of their marriage, until one day Mrs. A found that Mr. A had cheated on her multiple times throughout their marriage, leaving her hopeless of any form of affection from Mr. A.
Jacobs later found out that, like Medea, Mrs. A had taken it upon herself to use their children to hurt Mr. A: “she began to tell her children that Mr. A was a ‘psychopath’ who ‘fucks’ other women. She repeatedly told the children that their father had no capacity for feelings for them” (Jacobs). In the same way that Mrs. A had similarities with Medea, Mr. A had similarities with Jason. He on more than one occasion expressed the fact that he was a sexual man and had never loved any of the many women he had been with before and during his marriage, in fact, when he had been discovered as unfaithful he found no problem with it and could not understand why Mrs. A had been so upset. In fact: “He felt that Mrs. A was making a ‘big deal about nothing.’” He thought Mrs. A should understand for: “In his mind, sleeping with them had its advantages even for Mrs. A.” (Jacobs). Just like Jason, this man thought that the infidelity could be of use for his family.
The particular fact that Jacob stresses on, is the past of both, more specifically Mrs. A. Mrs. A, came from a family of seven, being the youngest of five in a family that had a father who never hugged or kissed anyone, including his wife. Only one of her brothers had a remotely close relationship with their father. Her brother, close after being presented with a part in the family business he became very ill. During this time, her brother became an extremely religious person. Jacobs assumed: “Mrs. A fell in love with Mr. A become her was a member of the clergy of that religion. He was very successful at what he saw was his chosen business and it was on the basis of this similarity between her brother and Mr. A that Mr. A became Mrs. A’s hero” (Jacobs). Jacobs hypothesized whether or not Mrs. A married Mr. A, who did not love her, because she was subconsciously guilty of having negative feelings towards her brother.
With Jacob’s Medea Complex and Freud’s Seduction theory, it is simple to prove that the repressed memories that troubled you as a child more than likely subconsciously trouble you now and even further causes you to make many decisions in your life. Medea and Mrs. A both coming from a broken home in which they felt guilty for the damage they made or could have made, chose to hurt their children knowing that their self-centered husbands could not feel pain otherwise. Even if Mrs. A thought there was no connection between her marriage failure and her childhood fears, it was; the memories followed her, whether she remembered them or not, these memories lingered in her brain and more importantly her heart causing her to do things she could have never imagined.