According to psychoanalytic theory, the Oedipus complex (or Jung’s Electra complex, in girls) is a desire for sexual involvement with the parent of the opposite sex and a sense of rivalry with the parent of the same sex. Is there a parallel complex for gay people, i.e. a desire for sexual involvement with the parent of the same sex, with rivalry with the parent of the opposite sex? I realize Freud himself wouldn’t have recognized sexual orientation as occurring that early in a child’s development.
I’m an unreconstructed Freudian, and damn proud of it.
The Oedipus complex is suppressed; that’s a big part of it. No, you don’t want to have sex with yo’ mama. But a deep, ugly, nasty, infantile part of your mind does: the same part of your mind that loses its temper in traffic, or cheats on diets, or says “You fool” when you meant to say, “I don’t agree with you.”
I remember the day I realized I believed in the Oedipus concept. Watching old Disney nature shows. Look at the two Bighorn Sheep. The young one is fighting against the older one, for possession of the harem of female sheep.
When I was young, I always rooted for the young sheep. Go, kid, go! But one day, as I had grown older, I realized I was rooting for the old guy. Put that little whippersnapper in his place!
I’d traded positions in the Oedipal tug-o’-war! I’m now the father figure, when I used to be the son figure!
re gays…I have no idea. Freud’s ideas about homosexuality are among his weaker theories. He, himself, thought that gayness involved a large degree of narcissism, that loving one’s own sex meant too much loving of one’s own self. Nowadays, we don’t think that’s true anymore. So, he might have had an answer for you…but it would probably be wrong.