Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Oedipus and Oedipus Complex

As has been previously discussed, the Narcissus of myth is not a Freudian Narcissist.  Similarly, Freud's other well-known classical reference, Oedipus, does not have an Oedipus Complex.  For, while the latter connotes an unconscious wish to engage in sex with one's mother and kill one's father, the former, in actuality, but unwittingly, commits those acts.  So, nothing comparable to the Id is involved in Oedipus' motivation.  Furthermore, on Nietzsche's interpretation, his Ego is shattered, not by the Superego, but by a force that is more powerful than any conventional mores, which, de-mythologized, could be interpreted as the Species.  So, the reduction of a social Tragedy to a phase in the development of any male psyche only trivializes the name of Oedipus.

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