PSYCHOLOGY – It is a key concept in psychoanalysis, but its existence is far from unanimous among mental health professionals.
“He must do his Oedipus complex”comments one easily by observing a toddler in the skirts of his mother. “She has not settled her complex”, we sometimes think of a woman whose companion is old enough to be her father. We gladly use this notion of psychoanalysis referring to the mythological figure of Oedipus who, after defeating the Sphinx, killed his father and married his mother – unaware that these were his biological parents. But we often use it without really understanding it. Because in reality, the Oedipus complex is a little more…complex.
“It is a key concept that Sigmund Freud took twenty-six years to develop.recalls Éric Smadja, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, member of the Psychoanalytic Society of Paris and author of the book The Oedipus Complex (PUF). According to him, the child, around 4 or 5 years old, experiences ambivalent feelings towards his parents, is moved by love and desire, but also nourishes hostility and hatred, for each of them.” We imagine the…
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