Kyra Myles
Dr. Sayers
Biopsychology 4-5:15 TT
November 7, 2017
The Westermarck Effect The Westermarck effect is “a psychological effect through which people who live in close domestic proximity during the first few years of their lives become desensitized to sexual attraction.” The phenomenon was first hypothesized by Edvard Westermarck – a anthropologist – In his book The History of Human Marriage as one explanation for the incest taboo. There are 5 key points in relation to the Westermarck Effect:
• Proximity: The effect applies to children raised in close contact
• Age: The critical period for “reverse sexual imprinting” ends by 6-7 years of age
• Age difference: If more than 8 years apart the effect is made significantly
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Amongst these being the kibbutz model. In the Israeli kibbutzim (which are collective farms). Children were reared together in peer groups based not on biological relation but on age. Later, when these children got married, out of 3000 marriages that occurred across the kibbutz system only 14 were between children from the same peer group and of that 14 none grew up together in the first 6 years of their life. This is the result that brought about the fact that the critical period for reverse sexual imprinting ends by 6-7 years of age (as mentioned above). When children are not grown together – for example a brother and sister - during this critical period and meet as adults or adolescents, they may find one another highly sexually …show more content…
The term comes from the Theban hero Oedipus of Greek Legend. This complex refers to “a child’s unconscious desire for the opposite sex and it is thought of as a natural stage of psychosexual development. The idea is that the child identifying with the same sex parent Is the answer to the complex and if it does not occur, this can lead to neurosis, pedophilia and homosexuality. Feminists argue with Freud’s theory calling it heteronormative (promoting heterosexuality as the norm).
Works Cited
“Westermarck Effect / Useful Notes.” TV Tropes, tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/WestermarckEffect.
Brook, Marisa. “Too Close for Comfort.” • Damn Interesting, Damn Interesting, 22 Mar. 2016, www.damninteresting.com/too-close-for-comfort
Revolvy, LLC. “‘Oedipus+Complex’ on Revolvy.com.” Revolvy, www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Oedipus%2Bcomplex&item_type=topic.
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. “Oedipus Complex.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 11 Sept. 2015,
Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Trans. Robert Fagles. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Ed. Maynard Mack et al. 6th ed. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 1992.
Gioia, Dana, and X.J. Kennedy. "Oedipus the King." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact Edition, Interactive Edition. 5th ed. New York: Pearson; Longman Publishing, 2007. 887-924. Print.
Thesis: The completion and substance of Oedipus Rex allows Oedipus to live grief-stricken throughout his successful search for justice.
Dodds, E. R. "On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex." Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex: A Collection of Critical Essays.
Dodds, E.R. "On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex." Greece & Rome, Second Series 13.1 (1996): 37-49. Jstor. Muntz Lib., Tyler, TX. 21 Mar. 2009.
Oedipus the King. Tranlsted by Stephen Berg and Diskin Clay. In Literature of the Western World, edited by Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. NewYork: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1984.
Ehrenberg, Victor. “Sophoclean Rulers: Oedipus.” In Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex, edited by Michael J.
Dodds, E.R. "On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex." Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Michael J. O'Brien. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice, 2005. Print.
The Latency Period =) during this stage personality is definitely established. The child continues to develop but his or her sexual urges are not as loud.
Oedipus Rex, an ancient Greek tragedy authored by the playwright Sophocles, includes many types of psychological phenomena. Most prominently, the myth is the source of the well-known term Oedipal complex, coined by psychologist Sigmund Freud in the late 1800s. In psychology, “complex” refers to a developmental stage. In this case the stage involves the desire of males, usually ages three to five, to sexually or romantically posses their mother, and the consequential resentment of their fathers. In the play, a prince named Oedipus tries to escape a prophecy that says he will kill his father and marry his mother, and coincidentally saves the Thebes from a monster known as the Sphinx. Having unknowingly killed his true father Laius during his escape, he marries the widowed queen of Thebes, his mother Jocasta. Many events in the story should lead to suspicion of their marriage, but out of pride and ignorance Oedipus stubbornly refuses to accept his fate. Together, these sins represent the highest taboos of Greek society, revealed by Socphocles’s depiction of the already pervasive story. Before the Thebian plays, the myth centered more around Oedipus’s journey of self-awareness; meanwhile, Sophocles shows Oedipus’s struggles with his inevitable desire toward his mother throughout these stages of psychological development.
The Web. 11 Nov. 2013. Dolloff, Lauren. A. The "Oedipus Complex" Oedipus Complex.
Reinhardt, Karl. “Oedipus Tyrannus: Appearance and Truth.” 20th Centruy Interpretations of Oedipus Rex. Ed. Micheal O'Brien. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1968. 51. Print.
Upon reading the play, there is an apparent class structure found throughout. In Oedipus Tyrannus, two mai...
Dodds, E. R. "On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex." Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Michael J. O'Brien.
Oedipus is depicted as a “marionette in the hands of a daemonic power”(pg150), but like all tragic hero’s he fights and struggles against fate even when the odds are against him. His most tragic flaw is his morality, as he struggles between the good and the evil of his life. The good is that he was pitied by the Shepard who saved him from death as a baby. The evil is his fate, where he is to kill his father and marry his mother. His hubris or excessive pride and self-righteousness are the lead causes to his downfall. Oedipus is a tragic hero who suffers the consequences of his immoral actions, and must learn from these mistakes. This Aristotelian theory of tragedy exists today, as an example of what happens when men and women that fall from high positions politically and socially.