Twelve + One: I was browsing...


Sunday, May 21, 2006

I was browsing...

..on Wikipedia, reading about Greek Mythology when i somehow found this eerie account....(and no, nothing got to do about Mythology)..


The Electra complex is an ambiguous psychiatric concept which attempts to explain the maturation of the human female. It is said to be the female counterpart to the Oedipus complex in males. Its name comes from the Greek myth of Electra, who wanted her brother to avenge their father Agamemnon's death by killing their mother Clytemnestra.

Carl Jung proposed the name Electra complex for Sigmund Freud's concept of the "feminine Oedipus attitude" in young girls. According to Sigmund Freud, the girl is originally attached to the mother as well; however, when she discovers that she lacks a penis during the phallic stage the daughter becomes libidinally attached to her father and imagines that she will become pregnant by him, while becoming more hostile towards her mother. This is due mostly to the idea of "penis envy": that the girl is envious of her father's penis and wants to possess it so strongly that she dreams of bearing his children. She believes that the pregnancy would replace the missing penis which she envies and would allow her to gain equal status with the father.

This leads to resentment towards her mother, whom the girl believes caused her castration. According to some radical psychologists, the male psyche is the dominant entity in human relations. This may be due in part to the belief that females have a weaker superego, where morality is developed and values internalized. This judicial component of human personality is developed during the phallic stage. A dominant view of the male psyche may also be rooted in the habits of a social system, such as those descended from patriarchal cultures and family systems. In later life, so the theory goes, the girl will grow into the character type that her mother has developed as a means to attracting a man similar to her father.

Furthermore, if there is a perversion in the development of females or if their aggression is somehow stifled, resentment can in turn be displaced towards the dominant male (the father) or patriarchal cultures in general. Some say this explains lesbianism and feminism (though this is not universally accepted, as it may unsupportedly assume that women loving and/or supporting equality for other women requires an animosity toward men).

posted by Anonymous @ 3:23 PM   13 comments