Understanding the Oedipal and Electra Complex

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Understanding the Oedipal and Electra Complex Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory on human sexuality introduces the Oedipal and Electra complexes as a psychological approach in understanding the origins of sexual orientation. Most people disagree with his theory and throw out the concept of the Oedipal and Electra conflicts altogether. This is because many are misinformed about the subject or do not completely understand it. Both the Oedipal and Electra complex play a vital role in the psychoanalysis of human behavior and appear in myths, fairy tales, and contemporary films. Freud believed that the experiences during childhood were important predictors of later adult personality. Each of us, he said, passes through five psychosexual stages during the first twelve or so years of life: the Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency and Genital stages. Freud also believed that movement through all five stages is motivated by strong biological drives, but he also suggested that if a child's needs are not met or are overindulged at one particular stage the child may fixate and a part of the personality may remain stuck at that stage (Huffman 453). Even of they make it throughall five stages, people may return (or regress) to a stage at which earlier needs were badly frustrated or overgratified. During the phallic stage (from three to six years of age), the major center of pleasure is the phallus (penis) for boys and the clitoris for girls. Children develop a desire for the opposite-sex parent and a wish to displace the same-sex parent. This attraction creates a conflict, the Oedipus complex for boys and the Electra complex for girls, that must be resolved. In Freud's view, young boys desire their mother and unconsciously want to replace their father, but, recognizing the father's power, they fear he will punish them by castration. This castration anxiety and the Oedipus conflict are resolved when the boy represses his sexual feelings for his mother, gives up his rivalry with his father, and begins to identify with him (Rathus 284). In the case of young girls , Freud believed they desire their father and unconsciously want to replace their mother.

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