Oedipus complex

The Oedipus complex is a psychoanalytic theory proposing that children have possessive sexual desires for their opposite-sex parent while viewing their same-sex parent as a rival and that the complex is resolved when children overcome their incestuous and competitive emotions and begin to view their same-sex parent as a role model. Established by psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud in 1899, the theory is controversial.

The Oedipus complex was proposed by psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud as a part of his theory that childhood development can be divided into psychosexual stages, differentiated by children’s purported sexual fixation on different parts of the body.

The Oedipus complex is named for the Greek myth of Oedipus, a Theban king who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother. Sigmund Freud used the myth as a parallel to his theory that children are attracted to their opposite-sex parent and feel hatred toward their same-sex parent.

Although Sigmund Freud commonly framed the Oedipus complex in a male context, he believed that it manifests in both boys and girls. In girls, Freud proposed a unique phenomenon known as “penis envy,” in which girls feel resentment toward their mothers for not granting them a penis. Alternatively, Freud’s former collaborator Carl Jung coined the term “Electra complex” to describe a girl’s attachment toward her father and dislike for her mother.

Many aspects of the Oedipus complex have been criticized. Critics argue that the theory was established with minimal evidence, making it difficult to justify as a universal phenomenon without consideration for differing cultural and social factors. Some of Sigmund Freud’s critics have focused on the larger implications of his theory on gender and sexuality—for instance, his idea, which is strongly contested, that homosexuality derives from an abnormal resolution of the Oedipus complex. Learn more.