What was Freud on about?

Vangelis

Is it a myth or did he really believe that daughters want sex with their fathers and sons want sex with their mothers?

simu

I'm moving this to humanities, in the absence of a psychology forum.

simu

Dave!

It's called the Oedipus complex, and I don't think it's a literal thing... Admittedly I don't know much about it, but I'd say it's more psychological than just wanting to bone your mam Probably more about wanting to become a man, and your father's influence in your life, and all that... Read that wiki article, it probably explains it. I'd say there's a load of books on it as well.

Sleepy

The general jist of it is that one's parents are the first other people one has interaction with in life. As such, a child's mother is his/her first role-model of what a woman should be like and their father is the first role-model of what a man should be like. Freud postulated that this initial view of one's "ideal person" actually changes quite little in life and that because of this, women tend to be attracted to men like their fathers because those men are like their original notion of the "perfect man", likewise men tend to go for women like their mothers.

Hope that explains it for ya...

Vangelis

Allright. That explains it. I have to say though that I'm not like that at all. My man is so much different than my dad. I really think Freud was mistaking.. :rolleyes:

Dave!

Yeah he was a coke-head wasn't he? lol

Victor

I think it is more about power than sex. Having sex with your mother and/or killing you father are some of the ultimate power plays.

Talliesin

Yes, but to the Freudian view the reason for having power is to enable one's libidos (life urges - the feelings that make us want to eat, stay healthy and have sex, in other words the feelings that make us successful organisms) to be expressed.

Freud did think that the developing sexual drive was driven towards a young boy's mother (Oedipus complex) or initially towards a young girls mother but quickly moving to her father (Electra complex). The difference between them being due to different reactions to penis envy on the part of the girl and castration anxiety on the part of the boy. Critics say that Freud was obsessed with the penis. Freudians can counter that it was his mother's fault

It's certainly true that life-urges of the very young get directed towards their parents, since those life-urges are fulfilled by their parents feeding and otherwise caring for them, how much this can be equated with sexual desire is another matter.

Dades

I always thought the "Oedipus complex" somewhat misleading. Like Freud's own obsessions have given the guy a bad name.

Oedipus never intended to marry his mother, and when he eventually did it was unknownst to him and by pure (albeit oracled) coincidence.
And didn't he blind himself when he found out?

DadaKopf

Yep - the seer saw it happen, but on one believed him. Oedipus ignored fate, and for doing so, he blinded himself, forever trapped in an eternal present.

Interestingly, Nietzsche went on a lot about the "eternal recurrence" - whatever you do, it should be done in a way that you'd be happy doing for all eternity, or trapped in madness.

I think a lot of Freud's been discounted, but not everything.

Resurrection

One mans obsession and other's sickening thought. To be honest that's not what is attended for us and its just one man's obsession.

Vangelis

A scene from the movie "Analyze this" keeps recurring in my head. That's where Robert De Niro plays a mafia boss who needs help from a psychiatrist and the psychiatrist tells him about this Oedipus-myth. Then suddenly De Niro breaks out: "Are you sayin' dat I wanna **** my mom?!" Repeatedly. And it's hilarious. I have ot say I sympathise with his disgust.

I don't see why this theory of Freud's is so widely accepted. Can anybody honestly say that he/she has an obsessive urge towards his or her mom or dad. "You are a sick man!" De Niro says.

I'll give an appropriate quote by Kierkegaard: "The paradox of the mind is its attempt to explore something the mind cannot think."

Zombrex

Vangelis wrote:

I don't see why this theory of Freud's is so widely accepted. Can anybody honestly say that he/she has an obsessive urge towards his or her mom or dad. "You are a sick man!" De Niro says.

As far as i know, Freuds theory (which I don't know still holds a lot of water with modern psycology), didn't say you want to have sex with your mother/father, only that people are attracted to people who share traits, or sunconsciously remind them, of their parents, because, as Sleepy said, your parents often form the idea of what a perfect grown up should be like and act like. So men will go for women who behave like their mother, and will often interact with them in the same way their parents interacted. Women will look for men who are similar to their fathers ... Well thats the theory.

It has very little to do with actually wanted to f**k you mother ...

simu

Vangelis wrote:

I don't see why this theory of Freud's is so widely accepted. Can anybody honestly say that he/she has an obsessive urge towards his or her mom or dad. "You are a sick man!" De Niro says.

Psychology has moved along quite a bit since then and in many different directions.

EamonnKeane

Oedipus never intended to marry his mother, and when he eventually did it was unknownst to him and by pure (albeit oracled) coincidence.
And didn't he blind himself when he found out?

I think the play was an exploration of unconscious urges. Despite not actually knowing, he was on some level aware.

Vangelis

Good point, Eamonn.

I came to think of something.. Imagine a daughter who has never met her father. What will happen to her? If Freud is right, what kind of a man will she go for when she hasn't had a manly rolemodel in her life? What about an orphan boy or girl?

They're asexual!