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Essay Archive - Definition of the Oedipus Complex
Definition of the Oedipus Complex
The positive libidinal feelings of a child to the parent of the opposite
sex and hostile or jealous feelings toward the parent of the same sex that may
be a source of adult personality disorder when unresolved. It is a pattern of
profound emotional ambivalence, a troublesome mixture of love and hate.
The Oedipus Complex occurs during the phallic stage, from roughly ages
3-6 years. Freud believed that during this stage boys seek genital stimulation
and develop both unconscious desires for their mother and jealousy and hatred
for their father, whom t....
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