The Electra complex is a term used to describe the psychoanalytic psychosexual stage analogous to the Oedipus Complex, in which a girl competes with her mother for her father's affection.
Solving the Electra complex, ultimately leads to identification with the same-sex parent.
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According to Sigmund Freud, during female psychosexual development, a girl initially bonds with her mother.
But when she discovers that she does not have a penis, something her father does, she begins to resent her mother, blaming her for her "castration." As a result, Freud believed that the girl begins to identify with and emulate her mother for fear of losing her father's love..
While the complex term Electra is frequently associated with Freud, it was actually Carl Jung who coined the term in 1913. Freud rejected the term, describing it as an attempt to "emphasize the analogy between the attitude of the two. sexes. ”Freud himself used the term female Oedipus complex to describe what we now refer to as the Electra complex.
According to Freudian theory, an important part of the developmental process is learning to identify with the parent of the same sex. During the stages of Freud's theory of psychosexual development, libidinal energy is focused on different erogenous zones of the child's body.
If something goes wrong during any of these stages, a fixation could occur at that point in development. According to Freud, these fixations often lead to anxiety and play a role in neurosis and maladaptive behaviors of adulthood..
Freud described the Oedipus complex as a child's longing for his mother and competition with his father.
The child possesses an unconscious desire to replace his father as his mother's sexual partner, which leads to a rivalry between father and son..
At the same time, however, the boy also has the fear that his father may discover these wishes and castrate him as punishment. To resolve this anxiety, the child begins to identify with his father and develop a desire to be like him. Freud believed that it was this process that leads children to accept their gender roles, develop and understand their own sexuality and even form a sense of morality.
The term itself is derived from the Greek myth of Electra and her brother Orestes, depicting the death of their mother in revenge for the murder of their father. Freud refers to the tendency of a girl for the possession of her father, something similar to the attitude of Oedipus in the female version or the so-called negative Oedipus complex.
Freud and Jung were originally close friends and colleagues, but each time Jung became more detached from certain aspects of Freud's theories. He thought that Freud placed too much emphasis on the role that sexuality plays in motivating human behavior..
For Freud, a whole series of defense mechanisms play an important role in the resolution of the Electra complex. To resolve the conflict, urges and desires must first be repressed from conscious memory. During the next part of the process, identification finally occurs. The girl begins to identify with her mother and incorporate many of the same personality characteristics into her ego..
This process also allows the girl to internalize her mother's morality in her superego, which ultimately directs her to follow the rules of her parents and society..
More definitions of Psychology: Dictionary of Psychology
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