Does it exist? I was thinking the other day, and it seems like most of my criteria for guys are descriptors of my dad. Has anyone else ever heard of this?
the female version is called an Elektra complex, but I don’t know if that can be applied to gays.
it makes sense, though, the relationship between your parents is the one you grew up with, the constant example of how it is done. Most people take their other sex parent as a template for their future boyfriends/girlfriends, in your case, it’s the same sex parent because you are gay.
The question exposes how idiotic Freudianism is.
Whether there’s a special name for it or not, the artist Francis Bacon had it.
I believe Kevin Bacon has it, too.
Mmmmm… bacon.
Oedipal theory certainly has a psychodynamic explanation for homosexuality although it’s not considered mutually exlusive with other theories. Oedipal theory isn’t the only theory of homosexuality that psychodynamics posits.
The general idea is that same sex parent was cold and distant while the opposite sex parent was dominating and/or smothering. In this situation, the same sex parent is not available/desirable for the child to identify with while the opposite sex parent was. This leads to an identification with the opposite sex parent and a constant “search for love” from someone with a gender identity similar to that of the cold, distant same sex parent. Freud probably would have argued that the reason so many priests are homosexuals is not just because they are attempting to hide behind the veil of celibacy but also because they are searching for an all-loving father.
Their are other theories stemming from the Oedipus Complex, and once again they aren’t at odds with any other theory. For instance, one idea is that the in order for a child to resolve the same sex parent conflict, the child chooses a same sex love object.
The first theory would account for effeminate male/masculine female homosexuals while the latter would account for the reverse. In the latter, the child has identified with the same sex parent but has chosen to avoid the
oedipal conflict rather than reach a rapproachment.
Inasmuch as the Oedipus situation actually exists, it does NOT mean “kid wants to f*ck his momma.” The Oedipus situation (supposedly) arises when a son’s developing sexuality focuses on his mother, and he begins to desire to take his father’s place in her affections. If the kid is “already gay” (a poorly defined concept for most children of this age), this desire may not take the form of a sexual attraction, but more of an adoration for mother or a hatred and jealousy towards father. In adulthood, the Oedipal son might jealously seek to appropriate his mother, to seek sex partners who resemble her psychologically, or to focus on the dislike for father (and father figures) – perhaps even seeking out sex partners who resemble his father, and then abusing them.
This started out pretty fact-based, but I see I’m a bit out on a limb. Still, FWIW, that’s my take. IANAP
Agreed. Nor does it mean that the male child has a literal or even figurative fear of castration. Unfortunately, ignorant people who have never even read Freud label all his ideas as complete bunk because of a misunderstanding of a few of his more unpopular ideas and the inherent unfalsifiablity of his theories.
None of you are understanding the question. The question is whether there is a Oedipus complex for children who are gay. In other words, wanting to replace the mother in sex or in inappropriate touching. The question is ‘does that exist’.
Someone wrote it in the thread 19 years ago when it was active: the Freudian theory of the Oedipus Complex is unsupported by research or evidence. So in a thread devoted to factual questions and answers, the question cannot be answered except to say Not Applicable.
Freud was basically a Fraud. There’s a debate whether he knowingly (likely) or unconsciously(?) dreamed up his theories to account for his patients’ problems. It seems that attributing them to early childhood molestation was not a good theory, despite the overwhelming evidence. Calling some of the cream of Viennese society as child molesters apparently he judged to be a career-limiting move, so instead he blamed the victim and made up his fantastical theories that the problems were all in their childhood imagination and subconscious yearnings. I presume society accepted these because it was easier than admitting the truth, and that has warped psychiatry to this day.
Or at least, his theories aren’t given much credence in the field now.
Because I wonder how those theories would apply to current same-sex marriages? How would you have an Oedipus complex about your mother when all your life you have been raised by two daddies?
Personally, I know a few same-sex couples who have raised their children since birth, and the children (now late teens or early twenties) seem to be turning out gay/lesbian at about the usual 10% rate.
Jeffry Masson raises some good points but is quite the crank. His logic is poor. Other sources are more accurate and less breathlessly sensational for debunking Freud.