In classical Freudian psychoanalytic theory, the Oedipus complex refers to a son’s sexual attraction towards his mother and a daughter’s to her father with the boy’s rivalry with the father and the girl with the mother. After the so-called phallic stage (3-5 years old) of psycho-sexual development the infant is supposed to have learned to manage the triad with both parents by repression of its desires. Freud named this the Oedipus complex after Sophocles’ (460 b.C.) tragedy King Oedipus, who’s fate it was to kill his father and marry his mother. A key moment in the myth is when Oedipus thinks he has solved the riddle of the Sfinx. The irony is that from the original text of Sophocles it is immediately clear that the last things Oedipus wanted were sleeping with his mother and killing his father. It also makes clear that the central thread of the myth is that all human rational intentions and attempts to avoid fate are void and futile.

The latter reflects Jung’s take-away from the myth which I find helpful. It illustrates the limitations of the free will and the problems that may come from not recognizing these limitations. According to Jung, Oedipus is not enough intimidated by the Sfinx which comes from a family of (semi-) monsters. Jung argues that Oedipus hubristically assumes that by solving the riddle rationally he has dealt with the real nature and tragedy of men. Sophocles’ Oedipus is not about the unconscious desire for connecting physically with the literal mother but rather about the need for Oedipus to relate better and more respectful to the Sphinx who symbolizes the Matriarchic Nature which is the bedrock of the human psyche and far more powerful than the free will.

Yesterday, I presented a brief introduction on this subject entitled Sophocles’ King Oedipus according to C.G. Jung for the Nederlands Psychoanalytisch Genootschap CG Jung.