In the years since Freud published his theory, much application of his ideas has taken place in conjunction with modern and past literature and history-- psychologists and anthropologists like Clyde Kluckhohn, Weston La Barre, and Margaret Mead have expanded and applied this theory to the early history of man and to traditional folklore, involving everything from the development of traditional patriarchy and marriage laws in tribal societies, to a psychoanalytic treatment to Shakespeare's classic tragedy, Hamlet.
When thinking about the Oedipal Complex, I inevitably begin to apply it to modern life: is the Oedipal Complex still relevant, almost 100 years after Freud postulated it? Subsequently, has our modern technology world quashed all context for Freud's theory? Can the Oedipal Complex be applied to changing familial relationships?
Considering the fact that technology now mediates almost all of our social interactions and that only about 25% of families in America are nuclear, the stage for the Oedipal Complex may have changed. The way I see it, I need only attend a family gathering to see my toddler cousin reach for his mother, sneakily trying to pull her cell phone out of her pocket to play with the touch screen. It's almost shocking how easy it is to set a baby down with an iPad and watch them wile away the hours, leaving the child entertained, happy, healthy, and without a strong connection to their parents. And the societal changes don't end there. According to the 2010 census, 115,000 households in the United States consist of same-sex partners with children, and of those households, roughly 30% contain adopted children as opposed to biological children. Freud certainly couldn't have predicted that!
The questions come down to this: when a 4-year old is more preoccupied with Fruit Ninja than his mother's affection, is there any possibility for the development of an Oedipal Complex? When a family contains two dads, two moms, a single parent, or non-biologically related families, is there any possibility that a little boy can cling to the parent of the opposite sex in competition with their father figure? Some psychologists don't think there is, namely those who belong to the movement among behaviorists ending in the conclusion that the Oedipal Complex is only of the 20th century.
Summing it up, all evidence seems to point to the fact that an Oedipal Complex can't exist within the framework of a landslide shift in the necessary interpersonal relationships. Even more prevalent than the statistics are the "shivery yuckies" I feel when I think about little boys in love with their mothers. And yet, even with all this evidence on my side, I still find myself wondering if perhaps this psychology that has been mapped in history for hundreds of years can't find a way to survive the modern era. So what do you think? Is the Oedipal Complex innate, or is it socially contextual?
Freud was kind of wacky, so I'm not so sure that the Oedipus complex ever existed - even when traditional family structure was the norm in the past. But, we can't discount the contributions he made to the psychoanalytic understanding of human emotions and motivations. But I digress.
ReplyDeleteYes, we definitely live in a different world now, and there's no going back. I think that little boys still love their mothers, but not in a "shivery yucky" kind of way. I think their love is the little boy love, that's innocent and pure. And I think that's the way it's always been - even in Freud's time. (I think little girls love their mothers too.)
So, perhaps we're different in some ways, but still the same in other very fundamental ways - like experiencing the strong familial bonds that parents and children share - both then and now.