Psychologists! Is my interpretation of OEDIPUS COMPLEX correct? Read Below!!!?

Question

Ok this is what I understand, please correct me if I'm wrong!

Basically a Male child at an early age has a sexual attraction towards his mother. This attraction goes on until the young male child see's his father with his mother, and for fear of castration he changes his behaviour, and is no longer attracted to his mother.

HOWEVER! If, for example, the father is not there, e.g. gone from the mother for a while (6 months), the young boy continues to have this sexual attraction, and this continues and forms a personality which in the long term causes him to be homosexual!

But if his father is around he will be heterosexual!

Answer 1

It's a theory by Sigmund Freud, who was a strong proponent of cocaine while coming up with these theories. Nowadays, people would laugh at coke addicts' theories, but somehow our psychology education worships this man. You can find similar theories from anyone wearing aluminum hats.

The oedipus complex states the boy's attracted to his mom, scared his dad will cut off his genitals, so this causes problems. I don't remember learning how this tied into homosexuality or why everyone isn't homosexual.

Answer 2

Your description of the Oedipus complex sounds good to me. Boy wants mom; boy fears dad; boy fears castration if dad finds out; boy identifies with dad so that he can get someone like mom; complex resolved (at least that is how Freud saw it).

The second part sounds kind of fishy to me. It may be a legitimate Freudian interpretation of the cause of homosexuality, but it is just an interpretation, at best. And when you consider that Freud's theory has largely been debunked, Freudian interpretations of human behavior are suspicious.

Sum: I have never heard of the homosexual argument like that, and I don't buy it as a legitimate explanation.

Answer 3

Possibly. But there are many homosexuals that have a perfectly normal bond with their father. In this case it could be biological.

Answer 4

frued's theories all encompassed our sexual development through childhood. i think frued didn't get out much. his psychosexual developmental theories must have held up to much scrutiny though, because they are still taught today. he seems obsessed with the sexual development of children, that to me is sickening enough to think he was a nut.