Oedipal complex
Freudian maternal attachment
The Oedipal complex is a psychoanalytic concept describing a child's unconscious sexual desire for the opposite-sex parent and rivalry with the same-sex parent.
Sigmund Freud named it after the Greek mythical king who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother.
The term now loosely describes any excessive attachment to a parent: He has an Oedipal complex about his mother.
Also called Oedipus complex.
- Greek tragedyClassical dramatic form featuring downfall
- libidoInnate erotic drive
- castration anxietyDread of losing male organs
- parental rolesResponsibilities of guardians
- idUnconscious instinctual drives
Jocasta · psychosexual stages · sexual development · mother fixation · father figure · parental bonding · incest taboo · primal scene · Sigmund Freud · repression · triangulation · unconscious · family conflict · ego · childhood trauma · superego · archetype · separation anxiety
- psychoanalysisFreud, id, ego, unconscious, Sigmund Freud
Oedipus, complex, complexes, complexion, complexioned, complexly, complexity