The Evolution of The Oedipus Complex in Women

In A. Lampl`De Groot’s report, he addresses the fact that Freud's thinking on this complex comes from a long line of research and that this complex is one of the early discoveries of the psychoanalytic theory. He states “Freud found the libidinal relations to the parents to be the center and the acme of the development of childish sexuality” meaning that in one's childhood, the affection he or she receives from their parent is what tends to determine their sexuality when they become of age. Groot states that this complex only comes into action when the child is of a young age and its ID has more control over the child than the child's ego has over his or her mind. Freud described the difficulties in elucidating the early infantile love relations to the difficulty of getting at the material relating to them. he thought that this was due to the profound repression to which these impulses are subjected.

The article “The Passing of the Oedipus Complex” by an unknown author, describes how the significance of the whole complex is revealed more and more as the child develops sexual desires. The boy or girl who regards his mother or father as his or her own property finds that his or her love and care for him or her are transferred to a new arrival, in which most cases would be the other parent. The article states, “Reflection deepens the effect of these impressions by insisting that painful experiences of this kind, antagonistic to the content of the complex, are inevitable.” Freud tries to explain that a child's sexual desires towards his or her parent are inevitable and are determined to happen no matter what. This is because as a child grows it develops many feelings, jealousy being one of them. The child can't stand to see the love he or she is given to others regardless of who it is. In this act of jealousy, the child's id has way more control over him or her than any other emotion. Even when no special events such as those mentioned occur, the absence of the parent's attention, causes the child to turn from its desires.

Luis Zanforlin describes the life of Freud and his thought process that had led his Oedipus Complex in his report titled “ Freud and beyond”. Freud was a medical graduate with particular curiosity to understand the human mind and its “neurological conditions”. Throughout his life, Freud published several studies on the topic of the mind some of which gave birth to the current field of psychoanalysis. Freud’s publication on the Oedipus complex is his most controversial study due to its infantile incest nature. Freud proposed that during human development babies have three stages of bodily pleasure exploration: the oral phase, in which babies explore pleasure through their mouths; the anal phase, in which they explore pleasure and disgust through their anuses; and the genital phase when babies pleasure impulses are based on their genitals. According to Freud during the genital phase, the infant develops a genital sexual impulse towards the parent of the opposite sex in doing this the same-sex parent becomes a rival towards the child as the child fears the father will end up castrating him.