“He has to do his Oedipus complex”we easily interpret by observing a small child in its mother’s skirts. “He hasn’t sorted out his complex”, we sometimes think of a woman whose companion is old enough to be her father. We happily use this notion of psychoanalysis to refer to the mythical figure of Oedipus, who, after defeating the Sphinx, killed his father and married his mother, unaware that they were his biological parents. But we often use it without really understanding it. Because in reality the Oedipus complex is a little more… complicated.
“It’s a key concept that took Sigmund Freud twenty-six years to develop.recalls Eric Smaja, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, member of the Paris Psychoanalytic Society and author of the book. Oedipal complex (PUF). According to him, at the age of 4-5, a child experiences ambiguous feelings towards his parents, he is moved by love and desire, but also harbors hostility and hatred towards each of them. We imagine…
Source: Le Figaro
