Thank you Don for your explanation and having the humility to say that one can only guess how the different orientations develop. This is really helpful
These matters are so complex. And orphaned child, or a child raised by a village, may will form a profound and important attachment to some member of the community. The point is the child needs an attachment to a good, kind, loving person. This doesn’t have to be a parent, or even a relative.For some children it can be a valued teacher, or a coach, someone who cares and whom the child comes to care for. It’s about finding love and kindness.
Trust me, it is far too personal to video. Psychoanalysis done best is experiential, not talk therapy based on text book theories that can not be verified. Theoretical models are feasible in some sciences but, to my understanding psychology is not a science. It's experiential. No two humans are identical although everyone goes through specific developmental stages with differing results that can be resolved with much emotional labor, or not.
I've known I have the tendency to split (to put it mildly) for five years but I just heard why I think I continue to do it even when consciously aware... there's no amibvalence!! So it feels good to the mind at the moment..erased ambivalence.. i must be right. Its like closing off an equation..problem+anger=i must be right!!Therefore any problem I get angry at is as good as solved and my rage is justified!! What a scam I've been playing on myself all these decades. Your stuff has been blowing my mind the past couple of days, thank you so very much. I'm finally seeing narcissism in myself.
@@doncarveth Hey Dr. Carveth, What would one call the exact opposite of the comment above described? Instead of feelings of certainty, you are left with feelings of fear, dread that leads to unnecessary self doubt, and essentially going over, checking and rechecking conclusions that are corroborated with evidence and sound reasoning. I feel like I'm getting over it, but only by realizing contradictions of premises, and gathering corroborating evidence from multiple sources,( paintings, scholarly scientific consensus, cultural surveys of various norms, philosophy and poetry), that I have been very lucky to come across. Importantly, spotting contradictions between false notions and reality(backed by evidence and reason) is probably what marks progress for me. The uncertainty of knowledge and understanding, providence in general, scares me, let alone important memories of the past coming to the forefront. But I guess it shouldn't surprise me since it's known that "All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare" I guess the problem is the self doubts are certainly emotionally triggered. But I think this is a false notion since I have spotted a trend from reviewing records of my thoughts i have kept over two years (for the pupose of creating a personal philosophy), where certain thoughts consistently preceede emotions that produce the self doubts. That is to say: I used to think these self doubts were mere chance occurances or being slighted by memory, but I don't think they are anymore. There is a pattern. Anyway, it was interesting to see that other people have seemingly the exact opposite reactions. Previously i thought that my reactions were because of the emotional intensity notions and feelings of absolute certainty produces. I think that was incorrect, since I have also noticed that these self doubts and urges to recheck, are also produced when I feel validated, calm, and happy. Sorry for the long comment, it was actually reduced from a wall of text. Thanks for your channel. I guess your videos in your playlists are made for an informed audience or professionals in training. I hit a wall as soon as you got to Klein. And fwiw I made my way to Freud via Walter Kaufmann
Well I agree with Loewald’s view: That the Oedipal resolution involves a kind of sublimated parricide and incestuous fulfilment, not renunciation of oedipal desire. I’m all for acceptance and the depressive position but these should not entail a sacrifice of passion. Just as we all continue to have the paranoid schizoid position, so we all retain perverse trends, kinks. If we turn away from these entirely, passion and intensity will be sacrificed. In my view this is a kind of crippling, not mental health.
Thanks Dr. Carveth. I appreciate your response. Sometimes that left me thinking about Lacanian perspective on Narcissism. Do you see that may be relevant to what you suggested? i.e. Growing for passion and its evolution. That would be separated from the Drive (theory)? I find it perplexing sometimes to engage with such dialogue. I am with you on the acceptance. That makes me think about Freud's "Mourning and Melancholia." In which I see that you just posted a new lecture online. I will listen to it then. Thanks again.
I may have misunderstood you but I feel if one transfers the relationship from mother to wife, we end up repeating the childhood drama, like the countless sitcoms featuring an all-knowing wife and a rascal husband [Simpsons, King of Queens]. How can we let a myth be the namesake of a "scientific" theory and ignore the ending of the myth?
TV PC classical scholars read that myth in Waze very different from Freud‘s. Aspects of the myth are insightful psychologically well other aspects are merely literary. The myth provide some insight but we are not bound or determined by the details of the myth. Neither are we bound by particular forms in which men symbolically marry their mothers. It depends on which of our mothers will you marry, as there is always more than one. Do I married my bad frustrating mother, or my good loving nurturing mother? Speaking personally, I finally found a woman who represents my good, loving, nurturing mother. She know either dominates mean or hold me in contempt.
Dr. Carveth: Thank you for conducting an online seminar on "The Oedipus" and its related narcissistic trauma. My questions to you were that it's primarily Freud's idea on identification followed by renunciation for oedipal resolution. I gathered that you seemed to have a different approach, which is to find fulfilling sublimation and to reach successful perversion. I find it perplexing in a way. What about Loewald's [psychic] patricide for separation and individuation? What about learning to gain a sense of acceptance and to learn how to let go? What about depressive position?
I always thought sublimation of aggression was the answer. Not acting out towards others who become antagonistic and verbally or physically angry due to their core envy. Unable to enter the depressive position and verbally say i feel bad. Projective identification in reactive abuse and i see oedipal and electra issues in narcissists. In jungian terms father wound which results in verbal or physical aggression toward others. In klienian view the paranoid schiziod position. Yes the drama triangle in the paranoid schizoid position and splitting predominates. A focus on introjects. So the external person is not the same as the introject in the patients head and tgey try to get others external objects to act like the internal object. Anything that contradicts this way of the introject results in anger. I take the klienian view of envy.
Always thought I’m a horrible dark sick person to be jealous and envious in my significant relationships- turns out I’m stuck at the pre-superego state and in a developmental arrest because of my unresolved Ödipus complex 😮
I really don’t know the causes of heterosexuality, let alone homosexuality. So if I start to analyze anyone, heterosexual or homosexual, I just don’t know what will turn out to have shape them I really don’t know the causes of heterosexuality, let alone homosexuality. So if I start to analyze anyone, heterosexual or homosexual, I just don’t know what will turn out to have shaped them. The analysis will be a field of research in which I hope to come to understand who this person is and what moves him or her, what his or her core stories or fantasies are.
Do you see the way you discuss sexuality here is heteronormative? Do you understand that there are other gender experiences besides "him" and "her". A more complete analysis of sexuality and gender will include a historical understanding of Western colonialism and white, settler, patriarchy as dominating and confining forces in human sexuality and gender experience. How do we reconcile the historical and political with the psychological here?
There is a published book by a “therapist” called polysecure about being secure and securely “attached” in polyamory. I’m curious to read it, but haven’t brought myself to yet…
If a child is orphaned or "raised by a village" as in ancient times, if there is no primary care-taker or such a care-taker changes several times, how then does this reflect in adulthood, for such a person? In these Oedipal terms elaborated so elegantly by you, Dr. Carveth, in this lecture? I hope my question makes sense. I also hope that you will think about lecturing on mourning, which you hint at in your Winnicot presentation from 2017, at minute 35, where you speak of Freud's reality-testing and Klein's going further with that concept.
If it is universal, it is part of the species, like our hands and hair. Mother, father, couple, penis, limitations, frustration, they are all products of evolution. It doesn't matter if they are in the genes or the situation. In fact, if the situation is always there over the generations, natural selection cannot even distinguish between these two things. Genes and environment come in the same package of selection. This desire for centrality, for example, has a lot to do with Darwinian selfishness. A Darwinian creature sees itself as the center of everything that matters.
I agree. Moreover, less than 2% will resolve their unhappiness without having genuine love and tenderness from parents or trusted caretakers. Didn't Freud say that a way to have a good marriage was to find a woman like his mother, of if female, find and marry a man like her father. Indeed, this option is best if they know nothing of Freudian theories. In other words, keep unconscious feelings repressed. 😮
Are you familiar with Dr. Joseph Nicolosi’s theory of how the Oedipus complex (triadic narcissistic family) can cause an injury to a male’s masculine ambitions/striving? Causing him to then sexual his masculine striving later on in life? What do you think about his model/theory?
I’m not familiar with his work but the point seems to be addressed to some degree by various analysts. But I would like to know more. Trouble is my vision makes it impossible for me to read, so I can have documents read aloud to me using an app.
Here are some of his videos explaining his theory: ua-cam.com/video/fZSDyYGQwgU/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/Y3UUZjFHPo0/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/T_DKdYfR5M8/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/c8CBHhg6fOE/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/77sHkbfb620/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/VsxEdshioc8/v-deo.html
It is true that Freud saw the super ego as the heir to the oedipus complex, but Melanie Klein saw the super ego as forming in the first year of life as an identification with the bad part object. From this point of you Floyd’s super ego is a much later version of the same thing.
My thinking tells me that the Super ego is reinforced by Christianity and religion in general. Love thy father and mother. Authoritarianism makes it difficult to see one's parents realistically. 😮
Dear Don Carveth: First as always, thank you for your videos. You make that very complicated concepts can be understood in a very simple way. I have trouble understanding the concept of the phallus. Do you think you could explain it? Thank you very much in advance.
@@RebecaCarrasco unfortunately, Freud literalizes: he means the penis not the phallus. He argued a Mail cannot have penis envy because he already has a penis, and a woman cannot have castration anxiety because she lacks a penis to begin with.
Were you saying that people have sex in private because it provides a kind of excitement for them. I guess it makes them feel wanted, excluding other people. Also doing it in privacy, yeah, adds that risk factor. I just wanted to ask if my understanding was correct. Thanks for your videos.
Yes, and I believe it is activated as hormones blossom in adolescents. The desire for babies is activated in females. What about boys...is sexuality dependent on testosterone?
Hi, I'm interested in reading more primary texts regarding the Oedipus Complex. What book recommendations would you have for this? Additionally, where could I find more on Erich Fromm's take on the Oedipus Complex that you were discussing in the video. Thank you for the video it was immensely helpful!
See the book edited by Ronald Briton called ‘ The Oedipus complex today.’ I’m afraid my vision is not up to finding the from essay for you, but I know it’s in one of his several books critically addressing Freudian theory. Unfortunately he sees the Oedipus complex as a product only of patriarchal societies which I believe is a very oversimplified view.
I looked for Fromm's work on the OC, He has a short section in the 1973 "The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness," and a chapter in the 1970, "Crisis of Psychoanalysis." Generally, any reversion to explanation by recourse to myths does not suffice for edification. I noticed an unpublished article on the Authoritarian Character Structure of German workers before Hitler which may address more specifically cultural value orientations, ideologies, utopias and and belief systems that drive the emotions and attitudes of parents. It just seems that any universal attribution to the oedipus conflict fails to address significant differences. Fromm differentiates oedipal conflicts as extreme or less extreme, benign and malignant. Aren't parental behaviors differentiated by culture, class and historical period? And , more finely, by family interaction patterns and differences like spacing, number of offspring or kinship structure size. It is one thing to lay out the basic ideas of the Oedipus Complex and another to address personality outcomes, like the extraordinary arrogance of some fathers, in certain classes and cultures, and thus, also by siblings!
Fred Welf Yes, all kinds of factors, cultural, familial, etc., affect the OC, but somewhere, I think in one of the chapters in Frommes the crisis of psychoanalysis, he argues that the Oedipus complex is a product of the father-son conflict in patriarchal society‘s. That is sociologically reductionistic and relativistic. I point this out and I think the last chapter of my recent book. The Oedipus complex is a universal trauma we all suffer a kind of PTSD. Trobriand culture is matrilineal and matrilocal with the trauma of not being Central to mothers life is very painful even if the rival is not sleeping with her but merely the most important person in her life.
Dr Carveth, First of all, I want to thank you for your all your online seminars, which are of great value to me (I am Psychologist and currently training/studying to become a psychoanalyst). I understand that the incestuous sexual desire from a child towards one of the parents it is not central and may arise secondarily to the desire of being the centre, but I have a couple of questions regarding homosexuality and how psychoanalysis can explain that crisis and its possible resolution: 1. Would a gay man (once child), possibly resolve his Oedipal complex by symbolically killing the Mother and symbolically having the father? 2. Would that be reversed in the case of a gay woman? I would appreciate any information you could share regarding this, perhaps a short video would be of great value, there isn't any that I could find. Many thanks
Freud, as you know, thought everyone, to a degree, experiences both a positive and a negative or inverted Oedipus complex. So, yes, one may desire either parent, Or I should say both parents, and regard both as rivals. People differ in the intensity with which they invest these patterns.
Victor, these hypotheses might be valid in particular cases but we don’t know when advance and I question the generalizations. These things very from case to case. The psychoanalyst should explore each individual case with an open mind, not imagining that he knows in advance from theory how things will be.
Don Carveth thank you for taking the time and clarifying these questions. And please, continue to upload lectures to your UA-cam channel - which has morphed into a classroom -. Your lectures are of inmensurable value.
Thank you for this clear and insightful presentation of the Oedipal Complex and thank you for your self disclosures which gave helpful substance to me in your presentation. I wonder if the Oedipal Complex may be simply described as a fundamental biological mechanism? I am a man. My mother gave birth to me, therefore whatever traits she had, or did not have, must have worked in terms of reproduction. Therefore, Mother Nature "hard wires" me to look for my mother's traits in my quest for a mate - well, it worked last time, so try it again. It is obvious that I would need to find my mother sexually attractive so that I will be sexually attracted to my own mate. Could it be some kind of societal blind spot that we find such a simple and wholesome interpretation to incestuous dynamics to be abhorrent (perhaps shameful?) and, therefore, catastrophised as a trauma? In a similar way, I see my wish to metaphorically "kill" my father as a dynamic of my natural masculinity - the drive to be able to strike out on my own to drive forward the evolution of our species. I will have to "kill off" my internal restrictive (or castrating) dynamics in order to be more free to drive forward and create change. I am an interested layman, not a practitioner or an academic.
But many men choose anti-mother, a woman who in many ways is the opposite of mother, and often remain unsatisfied as a result. I would hate to see the desire for wholesomeness being applied to our sexuality. That would likely end it.
@@doncarveth I agree with your comment about wholesomeness being applied to sexuality - careless use of words on my part. I was referring to the current societal taboos we have. The subject and dynamics of incest is, I feel, one of those taboos and one which cannot be explored honestly and openly and without shame in current society. I would also include, for example, my, and one's, ability to be sadistic, cruel and a truly terrifying monster, given the opportunity. I feel your presentation makes the issues around incest to be a human (universal) facet in a way that is acceptable in society but also follows societal taboos by making it a universal trauma. In itself, the simple biological process that I describe above does not seem to me to be a trauma - provided there are no other dynamics at play, for example, I take your point about "anti-mother" selection. I respectfully suggest that this is still driven by the same biological incestuous dynamic but is being acted out in an anti way (for whatever internal motive) rather than following the natural reproductive and evolutionary imperatives. Thank you for a fascinating presentation - I am about to start on my third listening, this time taking personally relevant notes.
Occasionally, I attempt to understand this universal syndrome (incest) from a thought experiment. I think that in prehistoric times, our forefathers took any females desired. Probably from other tribes, then from one's own tribe, if there were no recent tribal fights. I'm not sure how jealousy or protection of one's personal family disrupted sexual promiscuity between tribe members. 🤔 However, in those years, there likely were no incest taboos. Nor was Christianity known. I'm not Christian or religious, but how does anyone know whether religion was created as a means to control rampant sexual attacks on young females? Did any of our earliest ancestors have codes of honor or rules to obey in order to have a functioning group, tribe, town, or society? My personal belief is that all life is here to create life. Therefore, the innate drive is to reproduce, primarily. To complicate things further, survival can not exist without attachment. This attachment creates bonding. So if attachment succeeds, this becomes our love model. All love, unconsciously, is a carbon copy of our first attachment. It's too complicated to not follow the only love that was experienced as children. No one reinvents the wheel. Yet, society believes differently. 😮 This is my imagination working, nothing else. Acting out one's daytime fantascies, then keeping an open mind, will eventually get folks to the repressed desires Freud addresses in most of his work. 😅😮
I'm a new viewer. So far as I can surmise, "P.S." = paranoid schizoid and "D" = depressive. Is that right? If so, I like this dichotomy because it seems to reflect our left-hemisphere and right-hemisphere orientations to the world, respectively (see Iain McGilchrist "The Master And His Emissary")
No, we can’t reduce left hemisphere functioning to the paranoid schizo position. There are many positives in PS and many negatives inD. Check out my 2018 book. Or several of the other video lectures
@@doncarveth Thank you Don! I will check that out. Have you read The Master And His Emissary? It changed the way I see the world. There's a strong correlation with the Apollonian vs Dionysian orientations that Nietzsche (thus Freud) were interested in.
Hello Professor Carveth: if you would be kind enough can you tell me in which paper Freud stated penis envy doesn’t apply to all women please. I’ve re-read the essay on sexuality 1905 in there Freud states “ she is overcome with envy” on the realisation she doesn’t have penis. I’ve also read Female sexuality 1931 and he hasn’t made the change to his thinking there. Many thanks.
I’m too blind now to track down the passages but in several of the essays in the 1920s he discusses the three Pervs available to women: masculinity, femininity and the sense of inferiority associated with penis envy.
Thank you for your help personally and more broadly your help in terms of posting your work it’s been invaluable to me. So castration complex maps onto penis envy. Pav one she turns away from sex all together, pav 2 she becomes gay “ masculine”, pav three heterosexual normal feminine position. If you would permit me further questions. Is there any foundation that Freud himself had issues regarding his own penis as we know he was Jewish so would have been circumcised could there be a link, seeing himself as having a lesser penis ? I ask this question respectfully of the Jewish faith and traditions, I do find such questions hard to ask, the question comes from an inquiring mind and from no anti-somatic tendency or inference. We know Freud had an Oedipus complex having the complex himself aided him ( for want of a better expression) in theorising it. Im attempting to draw a similar compassion with penis envy in that having issue himself ( penis envy) aided him I’m theorising it. I see a real understanding of misogyny in eliminating of his work an empathy almost for the lower status of woman and in other places I’m shocked: women have less superego for example. Im sorry to hear that your eyesight has deteriorated I have every empathy not that I have issue with my sight, however, I do live with M.E and Fibromyalgia so in that way I understand having a body that doesn’t work as it once did. Many thanks.
Maybe penis envy exists in some women, but not the majority. Little girls become aware that boys are different from girls. And to my knowledge, once realized, life does not change. All is fine. Freud is not to be taken literally. He did not get EVERYTHING correctly. My first analysis tried to convince me that by having a boyfriend named Peter or Derek, insinuated penis envy. Nonsense. I eventually fired him for all that he did not know. Lots of psychoanalysts are not trained well enough; furthermore, it takes many years of working with patients and clients to gather serious expertise. 🙄
I wasn't sure where else to post this, as we know Oedipus complex has been widely criticised as you mention in the over video by Malinowski ( in terms of power not sex) and I found other critiques by Berger and Otto Kernbreg ( penis envy applied to all women, therefore, misogynistic ) the world seemed to jump on these misguided critiques and still appears to, sadly. However, my question is in regards to Hysteria I'm aware you wrote Still Small Voice with your wife which I haven't read fully. I am aware you discuss modern Hysteria and illustrate that men also suffer from it, with that in mind, was Freud in your opinion misogynistic in his original assertion that Hysteria was a female only illness or was it that he was a man of his time? In addition, in terms of the diagnosis of Hysteria a patient would have seen a physician ( Doctor) first ? Would/ could it have been, due to thinking of the time, that the physician wouldn't have considered it possible for a male to have symptoms that had no physical reason, therefore, males would have been treated for a physical illness they didn't have. We are talking about the late 1800/ early 1900 hundreds medicine was still somewhat in its infancy as it still is in my opinion. I find it hard to accept Freud as a Misogynist as he was so board minded, one has to look no further than his essays on sexuality to see this. Further, do you think that shell shock could in some ways be mapped onto Hysteria as there seems to be a number of similarities to me and this was something Freud missed, admittedly this goes against my pervious assertion, due to his misogyny ?
@@doncarveth I'm aware that men of his time were misogynistic but my question was do you think Freud was and did this effect his proposal of certain illnesses as previously stated that hysteria was a female only illness and the connections between hysteria and shell shock ? I cant help but wonder if " we" are indulging in some sort of reductionism if we simply label him a misogynist. I'm aware i'm pressing you for an exact answer. I'm in England studying at M.A level i have the upmost respect for my tutors but have found myself working very much in isolation.
@@doncarveth Apologies I've edited and reedited this post as I've done more and more research I can only hope you haven't been bothered with multiple notification and i do very much appreciate you getting back to me and especially appreciate your kindness as id been so very incorrect which I'm more than a little embarrassed about, to blame anyone else for my lack of knowledge would be wrong of me but all can say as any form of defence is we have not looked at male Hysteria or been made aware of it on the M.A I'm doing. My understanding thus far is that Charcot asserted that Hysteria was a genetic condition so the patient or client as we would call them today were genetically predisposed to the condition, therefore, it applied to both genders whereas Freud proposed it was a psychological disorder after diagnosing both himself and his brother, Freud then rejected the notion they both suffered with hysteria ( one could assume from this both Freud and his younger brother had suffered sexual abuse but that is beyond the scope of this post, however, if you have any thoughts they would be welcome) I assume this at the time Freud rejected his own Seduction Theory 1897 ? Am i now correct in saying Freud then proposing the source of hysterical symptoms as infantile traumatic sexual experience which could be real or imagined. The notion of imagined traumatic sexual experiences brought disbelief of a clients into the equation do you feel this is a legacy of Freud we still see today as many survivors of abuse are not believed or it's somehow part of the innate human condition as it's so horrifying ? In this assertion Freud also brought gender in through the back door so to speak: proposing some degree of gendered bias in terms of the clients reaction towards infantile sexual experience, the attitude of the client ( passive or active) which determined the nature of the pathology women would mostly be passive = hysteria and men would mostly be active = obsession/ obsessional neurosis, to my mind there is an inference that women are more likely to suffer Hysteria do you agree ? It is now my understanding that Freud draw his conclusions in regards to Hysteria from18 case studies 12 women and 6 men. In my pervious post, all be it misguided, i was trying to look at the social affects or indeed if there where any of the old understanding of Hysteria (coming from the Greek meaning womb) so men wouldn't have been considered have it and whether this in some way effected male's even going to see Freud ( I don't know how the medical profession worked then) which would have had an effect on his subject group and, therefore, the corresponding theory he wrote. If my personal research is correct we see that only 6 men where a part of Freud's empirical research on Hysteria do you think this would have been in some way a part of why he then proposed the aforementioned this seemingly gendered approach ? Many thanks if it wasn't for your videos and now personal correspondence i wouldn't be getting through my M.A.
Why is it difficult to hypothesize that as human beings, we were genetically programmed to be wired for reproduction in this manner, since we all evolved through nature, as were animals. An easy, approachable trigger for humans would be the mother. Then, once adolescence was reached hormones set sexuality in motion, at that time or as young adults.
Likewise, why is it difficult to hypothesize that one's sexual preference is in our genes. I've alway believed our sexual choice is part of we we are, genetically. Anything else makes no sense to me. Furthermore, who cares about the sexual identity of others? What possible difference could it make to those not involved? I can only imagine how difficult it must be to sort these emotions out in a our judgmental society.
I'm sure the Oedipus complex is involved in some way in everything but thinking it has some direct relationship with the determining of sexual preference is a bit of a waste of time
When you speak of the Oedipus complex in my opinion it seems like when you start bringing in the homosexual aspect of women or men it further complicates the theory because men and women that are homosexuals are a minority they're an exception they're not the rule so my thinking is I understand that some people and even in my family they desire the same sex and that's fine but when you're speaking of something like the Oedipus complex shouldn't you stick to how majority of the human population acts in the Oedipus complex instead of trying to explain the theory by the exceptions because rules are not made by exceptions they're made by the majority
Wait, what is the deal with these random value judgements about non-monogamy? What about your own ideology obstructs your perspective from a more complex understanding of this dynamic?
Thank you Don for your explanation and having the humility to say that one can only guess how the different orientations develop. This is really helpful
This is incredibly insightful. Thank you for this!
I really appreciate your videos, hope they keep coming.
These matters are so complex. And orphaned child, or a child raised by a village, may will form a profound and important attachment to some member of the community. The point is the child needs an attachment to a good, kind, loving person. This doesn’t have to be a parent, or even a relative.For some children it can be a valued teacher, or a coach, someone who cares and whom the child comes to care for. It’s about finding love and kindness.
or not.
This is good. I wish there were videos of patients describing how it was recognized, accepted, and overcome in therapy.
Trust me, it is far too personal to video. Psychoanalysis done best is experiential, not talk therapy based on text book theories that can not be verified. Theoretical models are feasible in some sciences but, to my understanding psychology is not a science. It's experiential. No two humans are identical although everyone goes through specific developmental stages with differing results that can be resolved with much emotional labor, or not.
Oh, and thanks for the suggestion regarding mourning. I will do that.
Fascinating! Clarified a lot of things here
I've known I have the tendency to split (to put it mildly) for five years but I just heard why I think I continue to do it even when consciously aware... there's no amibvalence!! So it feels good to the mind at the moment..erased ambivalence.. i must be right. Its like closing off an equation..problem+anger=i must be right!!Therefore any problem I get angry at is as good as solved and my rage is justified!! What a scam I've been playing on myself all these decades. Your stuff has been blowing my mind the past couple of days, thank you so very much. I'm finally seeing narcissism in myself.
Thanks, glad to hear it’s helping.
@@doncarveth
Hey Dr. Carveth, What would one call the exact opposite of the comment above described?
Instead of feelings of certainty, you are left with feelings of fear, dread that leads to unnecessary self doubt, and essentially going over, checking and rechecking conclusions that are corroborated with evidence and sound reasoning.
I feel like I'm getting over it, but only by realizing contradictions of premises, and gathering corroborating evidence from multiple sources,( paintings, scholarly scientific consensus, cultural surveys of various norms, philosophy and poetry), that I have been very lucky to come across.
Importantly, spotting contradictions between false notions and reality(backed by evidence and reason) is probably what marks progress for me.
The uncertainty of knowledge and understanding, providence in general, scares me, let alone important memories of the past coming to the forefront. But I guess it shouldn't surprise me since it's known that "All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare"
I guess the problem is the self doubts are certainly emotionally triggered. But I think this is a false notion since I have spotted a trend from reviewing records of my thoughts i have kept over two years (for the pupose of creating a personal philosophy), where certain thoughts consistently preceede emotions that produce the self doubts. That is to say: I used to think these self doubts were mere chance occurances or being slighted by memory, but I don't think they are anymore. There is a pattern.
Anyway, it was interesting to see that other people have seemingly the exact opposite reactions.
Previously i thought that my reactions were because of the emotional intensity notions and feelings of absolute certainty produces. I think that was incorrect, since I have also noticed that these self doubts and urges to recheck, are also produced when I feel validated, calm, and happy.
Sorry for the long comment, it was actually reduced from a wall of text.
Thanks for your channel. I guess your videos in your playlists are made for an informed audience or professionals in training. I hit a wall as soon as you got to Klein. And fwiw I made my way to Freud via Walter Kaufmann
Well I agree with Loewald’s view: That the Oedipal resolution involves a kind of sublimated parricide and incestuous fulfilment, not renunciation of oedipal desire. I’m all for acceptance and the depressive position but these should not entail a sacrifice of passion. Just as we all continue to have the paranoid schizoid position, so we all retain perverse trends, kinks. If we turn away from these entirely, passion and intensity will be sacrificed. In my view this is a kind of crippling, not mental health.
Thanks Dr. Carveth. I appreciate your response. Sometimes that left me thinking about Lacanian perspective on Narcissism. Do you see that may be relevant to what you suggested? i.e. Growing for passion and its evolution. That would be separated from the Drive (theory)? I find it perplexing sometimes to engage with such dialogue. I am with you on the acceptance. That makes me think about Freud's "Mourning and Melancholia." In which I see that you just posted a new lecture online. I will listen to it then. Thanks again.
If this is true, why does the story end so poorly for Jocasta and Oedipus?
Because it is a myth and not psychological science?
I may have misunderstood you but I feel if one transfers the relationship from mother to wife,
we end up repeating the childhood drama, like the countless sitcoms featuring an all-knowing wife and a rascal husband [Simpsons, King of Queens]. How can we let a myth be the namesake of a "scientific" theory and ignore the ending of the myth?
TV PC classical scholars read that myth in Waze very different from Freud‘s. Aspects of the myth are insightful psychologically well other aspects are merely literary. The myth provide some insight but we are not bound or determined by the details of the myth. Neither are we bound by particular forms in which men symbolically marry their mothers. It depends on which of our mothers will you marry, as there is always more than one. Do I married my bad frustrating mother, or my good loving nurturing mother? Speaking personally, I finally found a woman who represents my good, loving, nurturing mother. She know either dominates mean or hold me in contempt.
Dr. Carveth: Thank you for conducting an online seminar on "The Oedipus" and its related narcissistic trauma. My questions to you were that it's primarily Freud's idea on identification followed by renunciation for oedipal resolution. I gathered that you seemed to have a different approach, which is to find fulfilling sublimation and to reach successful perversion. I find it perplexing in a way. What about Loewald's [psychic] patricide for separation and individuation? What about learning to gain a sense of acceptance and to learn how to let go? What about depressive position?
I always thought sublimation of aggression was the answer. Not acting out towards others who become antagonistic and verbally or physically angry due to their core envy. Unable to enter the depressive position and verbally say i feel bad. Projective identification in reactive abuse and i see oedipal and electra issues in narcissists. In jungian terms father wound which results in verbal or physical aggression toward others. In klienian view the paranoid schiziod position. Yes the drama triangle in the paranoid schizoid position and splitting predominates. A focus on introjects. So the external person is not the same as the introject in the patients head and tgey try to get others external objects to act like the internal object. Anything that contradicts this way of the introject results in anger. I take the klienian view of envy.
This seems to be a good explanation of complex theories. I frequently preview videos by reading a few comments.
Always thought I’m a horrible dark sick person to be jealous and envious in my significant relationships- turns out I’m stuck at the pre-superego state and in a developmental arrest because of my unresolved Ödipus complex 😮
Self analysis is unreliable. Best to work all this through with a professional.
Thank you, David
Thank you !sir
I had no Idea that the penis envy has such a spesific context! It's brought up as if it were a general argument of Freud all the time!
Thanks for this.
Most welcome
Interesting!💕
I really don’t know the causes of heterosexuality, let alone homosexuality. So if I start to analyze anyone, heterosexual or homosexual, I just don’t know what will turn out to have shape them I really don’t know the causes of heterosexuality, let alone homosexuality. So if I start to analyze anyone, heterosexual or homosexual, I just don’t know what will turn out to have shaped them. The analysis will be a field of research in which I hope to come to understand who this person is and what moves him or her, what his or her core stories or fantasies are.
Do you see the way you discuss sexuality here is heteronormative? Do you understand that there are other gender experiences besides "him" and "her". A more complete analysis of sexuality and gender will include a historical understanding of Western colonialism and white, settler, patriarchy as dominating and confining forces in human sexuality and gender experience. How do we reconcile the historical and political with the psychological here?
Dillon W yes,I see that. Fortunately we have call leagues to help correct our biases.
There is a published book by a “therapist” called polysecure about being secure and securely “attached” in polyamory. I’m curious to read it, but haven’t brought myself to yet…
If a child is orphaned or "raised by a village" as in ancient times, if there is no primary care-taker or such a care-taker changes several times, how then does this reflect in adulthood, for such a person? In these Oedipal terms elaborated so elegantly by you, Dr. Carveth, in this lecture? I hope my question makes sense.
I also hope that you will think about lecturing on mourning, which you hint at in your Winnicot presentation from 2017, at minute 35, where you speak of Freud's reality-testing and Klein's going further with that concept.
Which book would you recommend to help explore further on your thoughts presented
Britton, R., Feldman, M. and O'Shaugnessy, E. (1989). The Oedipus Complex Today Clinical Implications, 1-150. London: Karnac Books.
@@doncarveth thanks for replying. I will get that book. Loving your work- Orla from Northern Ireland (living in London)
Prof Carveth Please is there any chance to do a review of Benvenuto's book ? something in depth like chapter by chapter . Thanks
I wish I had the energy for that. There are two pieces in the online journal psychoanalytic discourse by Alireza Taheri and by me.
@@doncarveth really hope you get your energy back.I read the book and is very dense. thanks again
If it is universal, it is part of the species, like our hands and hair. Mother, father, couple, penis, limitations, frustration, they are all products of evolution. It doesn't matter if they are in the genes or the situation. In fact, if the situation is always there over the generations, natural selection cannot even distinguish between these two things. Genes and environment come in the same package of selection. This desire for centrality, for example, has a lot to do with Darwinian selfishness. A Darwinian creature sees itself as the center of everything that matters.
I agree. Moreover, less than 2% will resolve their unhappiness without having genuine love and tenderness from parents or trusted caretakers.
Didn't Freud say that a way to have a good marriage was to find a woman like his mother, of if female, find and marry a man like her father. Indeed, this option is best if they know nothing of Freudian theories. In other words, keep unconscious feelings repressed. 😮
Are you familiar with Dr. Joseph Nicolosi’s theory of how the Oedipus complex (triadic narcissistic family) can cause an injury to a male’s masculine ambitions/striving? Causing him to then sexual his masculine striving later on in life?
What do you think about his model/theory?
I’m not familiar with his work but the point seems to be addressed to some degree by various analysts. But I would like to know more. Trouble is my vision makes it impossible for me to read, so I can have documents read aloud to me using an app.
Here are some of his videos explaining his theory:
ua-cam.com/video/fZSDyYGQwgU/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/Y3UUZjFHPo0/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/T_DKdYfR5M8/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/c8CBHhg6fOE/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/77sHkbfb620/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/VsxEdshioc8/v-deo.html
Serendipitous!
Thank you for this, Prof. What about the formation of superego out of the oedipal trauma?
It is true that Freud saw the super ego as the heir to the oedipus complex, but Melanie Klein saw the super ego as forming in the first year of life as an identification with the bad part object. From this point of you Floyd’s super ego is a much later version of the same thing.
Don Carveth thank you!
My thinking tells me that the Super ego is reinforced by Christianity and religion in general.
Love thy father and mother. Authoritarianism makes it difficult to see one's parents realistically. 😮
Dear Don Carveth: First as always, thank you for your videos. You make that very complicated concepts can be understood in a very simple way. I have trouble understanding the concept of the phallus. Do you think you could explain it? Thank you very much in advance.
For Lacan, The phallus symbolizes whatever qualities I possess that make you desire me: my Inrelligence, looks, breasts,beauty ... whatever.
@@doncarveth and what about Freud? What that symbolizes for him? Thank you very much. I really apréciate your answers 🙏🙏🙏🙏
@@RebecaCarrasco unfortunately, Freud literalizes: he means the penis not the phallus. He argued a Mail cannot have penis envy because he already has a penis, and a woman cannot have castration anxiety because she lacks a penis to begin with.
@@doncarveth thank you 🙏
@@RebecaCarrasco You are most welcome, Rebecca
Were you saying that people have sex in private because it provides a kind of excitement for them.
I guess it makes them feel wanted, excluding other people. Also doing it in privacy, yeah, adds that risk factor.
I just wanted to ask if my understanding was correct.
Thanks for your videos.
Yes, partners in crime, excluding others
@@doncarveth Thanks for the clarification Dr. Carveth
So glad you cut your hair before corona
Yeah, but it will probably start looking like that again soon!
Sexuality is very much biological
Yes, and I believe it is activated as hormones blossom in adolescents. The desire for babies is activated in females.
What about boys...is sexuality dependent
on testosterone?
Hi, I'm interested in reading more primary texts regarding the Oedipus Complex. What book recommendations would you have for this? Additionally, where could I find more on Erich Fromm's take on the Oedipus Complex that you were discussing in the video.
Thank you for the video it was immensely helpful!
See the book edited by Ronald Briton called ‘ The Oedipus complex today.’ I’m afraid my vision is not up to finding the from essay for you, but I know it’s in one of his several books critically addressing Freudian theory. Unfortunately he sees the Oedipus complex as a product only of patriarchal societies which I believe is a very oversimplified view.
I looked for Fromm's work on the OC, He has a short section in the 1973 "The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness," and a chapter in the 1970, "Crisis of Psychoanalysis." Generally, any reversion to explanation by recourse to myths does not suffice for edification. I noticed an unpublished article on the Authoritarian Character Structure of German workers before Hitler which may address more specifically cultural value orientations, ideologies, utopias and and belief systems that drive the emotions and attitudes of parents. It just seems that any universal attribution to the oedipus conflict fails to address significant differences. Fromm differentiates oedipal conflicts as extreme or less extreme, benign and malignant. Aren't parental behaviors differentiated by culture, class and historical period? And , more finely, by family interaction patterns and differences like spacing, number of offspring or kinship structure size. It is one thing to lay out the basic ideas of the Oedipus Complex and another to address personality outcomes, like the extraordinary arrogance of some fathers, in certain classes and cultures, and thus, also by siblings!
Fred Welf Yes, all kinds of factors, cultural, familial, etc., affect the OC, but somewhere, I think in one of the chapters in Frommes the crisis of psychoanalysis, he argues that the Oedipus complex is a product of the father-son conflict in patriarchal society‘s. That is sociologically reductionistic and relativistic. I point this out and I think the last chapter of my recent book. The Oedipus complex is a universal trauma we all suffer a kind of PTSD. Trobriand culture is matrilineal and matrilocal with the trauma of not being Central to mothers life is very painful even if the rival is not sleeping with her but merely the most important person in her life.
Dr Carveth,
First of all, I want to thank you for your all your online seminars, which are of great value to me (I am Psychologist and currently training/studying to become a psychoanalyst).
I understand that the incestuous sexual desire from a child towards one of the parents it is not central and may arise secondarily to the desire of being the centre, but I have a couple of questions regarding homosexuality and how psychoanalysis can explain that crisis and its possible resolution:
1. Would a gay man (once child), possibly resolve his Oedipal complex by symbolically killing the Mother and symbolically having the father?
2. Would that be reversed in the case of a gay woman?
I would appreciate any information you could share regarding this, perhaps a short video would be of great value, there isn't any that I could find.
Many thanks
Freud, as you know, thought everyone, to a degree, experiences both a positive and a negative or inverted Oedipus complex. So, yes, one may desire either parent, Or I should say both parents, and regard both as rivals. People differ in the intensity with which they invest these patterns.
Victor, these hypotheses might be valid in particular cases but we don’t know when advance and I question the generalizations. These things very from case to case. The psychoanalyst should explore each individual case with an open mind, not imagining that he knows in advance from theory how things will be.
Don Carveth thank you for taking the time and clarifying these questions. And please, continue to upload lectures to your UA-cam channel - which has morphed into a classroom -. Your lectures are of inmensurable value.
Thank you for this clear and insightful presentation of the Oedipal Complex and thank you for your self disclosures which gave helpful substance to me in your presentation.
I wonder if the Oedipal Complex may be simply described as a fundamental biological mechanism? I am a man. My mother gave birth to me, therefore whatever traits she had, or did not have, must have worked in terms of reproduction. Therefore, Mother Nature "hard wires" me to look for my mother's traits in my quest for a mate - well, it worked last time, so try it again. It is obvious that I would need to find my mother sexually attractive so that I will be sexually attracted to my own mate.
Could it be some kind of societal blind spot that we find such a simple and wholesome interpretation to incestuous dynamics to be abhorrent (perhaps shameful?) and, therefore, catastrophised as a trauma? In a similar way, I see my wish to metaphorically "kill" my father as a dynamic of my natural masculinity - the drive to be able to strike out on my own to drive forward the evolution of our species. I will have to "kill off" my internal restrictive (or castrating) dynamics in order to be more free to drive forward and create change.
I am an interested layman, not a practitioner or an academic.
But many men choose anti-mother, a woman who in many ways is the opposite of mother, and often remain unsatisfied as a result. I would hate to see the desire for wholesomeness being applied to our sexuality. That would likely end it.
@@doncarveth I agree with your comment about wholesomeness being applied to sexuality - careless use of words on my part. I was referring to the current societal taboos we have. The subject and dynamics of incest is, I feel, one of those taboos and one which cannot be explored honestly and openly and without shame in current society. I would also include, for example, my, and one's, ability to be sadistic, cruel and a truly terrifying monster, given the opportunity.
I feel your presentation makes the issues around incest to be a human (universal) facet in a way that is acceptable in society but also follows societal taboos by making it a universal trauma. In itself, the simple biological process that I describe above does not seem to me to be a trauma - provided there are no other dynamics at play, for example, I take your point about "anti-mother" selection. I respectfully suggest that this is still driven by the same biological incestuous dynamic but is being acted out in an anti way (for whatever internal motive) rather than following the natural reproductive and evolutionary imperatives. Thank you for a fascinating presentation - I am about to start on my third listening, this time taking personally relevant notes.
Occasionally, I attempt to understand this universal syndrome (incest) from a thought experiment.
I think that in prehistoric times, our forefathers took any females desired. Probably from other tribes, then from one's own tribe, if there were no recent tribal fights. I'm not sure how jealousy or protection of one's personal family disrupted sexual promiscuity between tribe members. 🤔
However, in those years, there likely were no incest taboos. Nor was Christianity known. I'm not Christian or religious, but how does anyone know whether religion was created as a means to control rampant sexual attacks on young females? Did any of our earliest ancestors have codes of honor or rules to obey in order to have a functioning group, tribe, town, or society?
My personal belief is that all life is here to create life. Therefore, the innate drive is to reproduce, primarily.
To complicate things further, survival can not exist without attachment. This attachment creates bonding. So if attachment succeeds, this becomes our love model. All love, unconsciously, is a carbon copy of our first attachment. It's too complicated to not follow the only love that was experienced as children. No one reinvents the wheel. Yet, society believes differently.
😮 This is my imagination working, nothing else.
Acting out one's daytime fantascies, then keeping an open mind, will eventually get folks to the repressed desires Freud addresses in most of his work. 😅😮
I'm a new viewer. So far as I can surmise, "P.S." = paranoid schizoid and "D" = depressive. Is that right? If so, I like this dichotomy because it seems to reflect our left-hemisphere and right-hemisphere orientations to the world, respectively (see Iain McGilchrist "The Master And His Emissary")
No, we can’t reduce left hemisphere functioning to the paranoid schizo position. There are many positives in PS and many negatives inD. Check out my 2018 book. Or several of the other video lectures
@@doncarveth Thank you Don! I will check that out. Have you read The Master And His Emissary? It changed the way I see the world. There's a strong correlation with the Apollonian vs Dionysian orientations that Nietzsche (thus Freud) were interested in.
@@bush0165 Yes, but not PS & D
Hello Professor Carveth: if you would be kind enough can you tell me in which paper Freud stated penis envy doesn’t apply to all women please. I’ve re-read the essay on sexuality 1905 in there Freud states “ she is overcome with envy” on the realisation she doesn’t have penis. I’ve also read Female sexuality 1931 and he hasn’t made the change to his thinking there. Many thanks.
I’m too blind now to track down the passages but in several of the essays in the 1920s he discusses the three Pervs available to women: masculinity, femininity and the sense of inferiority associated with penis envy.
Thank you for your help personally and more broadly your help in terms of posting your work it’s been invaluable to me. So castration complex maps onto penis envy. Pav one she turns away from sex all together, pav 2 she becomes gay “ masculine”, pav three heterosexual normal feminine position. If you would permit me further questions. Is there any foundation that Freud himself had issues regarding his own penis as we know he was Jewish so would have been circumcised could there be a link, seeing himself as having a lesser penis ? I ask this question respectfully of the Jewish faith and traditions, I do find such questions hard to ask, the question comes from an inquiring mind and from no anti-somatic tendency or inference. We know Freud had an Oedipus complex having the complex himself aided him ( for want of a better expression) in theorising it. Im attempting to draw a similar compassion with penis envy in that having issue himself ( penis envy) aided him I’m theorising it. I see a real understanding of misogyny in eliminating of his work an empathy almost for the lower status of woman and in other places I’m shocked: women have less superego for example. Im sorry to hear that your eyesight has deteriorated I have every empathy not that I have issue with my sight, however, I do live with M.E and Fibromyalgia so in that way I understand having a body that doesn’t work as it once did. Many thanks.
Maybe penis envy exists in some women, but not the majority. Little girls become aware that boys are different from girls. And to my knowledge, once realized, life does not change. All is fine.
Freud is not to be taken literally. He did not get EVERYTHING correctly. My first analysis tried to convince me that by having a boyfriend named Peter or Derek, insinuated penis envy. Nonsense. I eventually fired him for all that he did not know. Lots of psychoanalysts are not trained well enough; furthermore, it takes many years of working with patients and clients to gather serious expertise. 🙄
Regarding sexual identity, why can it not be genetic? We are born into our preference. Is this too uncomplicated?
Dr. What is the treatment?
Psychoanalysis
I wasn't sure where else to post this, as we know Oedipus complex has been widely criticised as you mention in the over video by Malinowski ( in terms of power not sex) and I found other critiques by Berger and Otto Kernbreg ( penis envy applied to all women, therefore, misogynistic ) the world seemed to jump on these misguided critiques and still appears to, sadly. However, my question is in regards to Hysteria I'm aware you wrote Still Small Voice with your wife which I haven't read fully. I am aware you discuss modern Hysteria and illustrate that men also suffer from it, with that in mind, was Freud in your opinion misogynistic in his original assertion that Hysteria was a female only illness or was it that he was a man of his time? In addition, in terms of the diagnosis of Hysteria a patient would have seen a physician ( Doctor) first ? Would/ could it have been, due to thinking of the time, that the physician wouldn't have considered it possible for a male to have symptoms that had no physical reason, therefore, males would have been treated for a physical illness they didn't have. We are talking about the late 1800/ early 1900 hundreds medicine was still somewhat in its infancy as it still is in my opinion. I find it hard to accept Freud as a Misogynist as he was so board minded, one has to look no further than his essays on sexuality to see this. Further, do you think that shell shock could in some ways be mapped onto Hysteria as there seems to be a number of similarities to me and this was something Freud missed, admittedly this goes against my pervious assertion, due to his misogyny ?
Men of his time were misogynistic for the most part.
@@doncarveth I'm aware that men of his time were misogynistic but my question was do you think Freud was and did this effect his proposal of certain illnesses as previously stated that hysteria was a female only illness and the connections between hysteria and shell shock ? I cant help but wonder if " we" are indulging in some sort of reductionism if we simply label him a misogynist. I'm aware i'm pressing you for an exact answer. I'm in England studying at M.A level i have the upmost respect for my tutors but have found myself working very much in isolation.
@@SuperLenton Freud was well aware of mill hysteria. He learned this from Charcot and brought the news back to Vienna.
@@doncarveth Apologies I've edited and reedited this post as I've done more and more research I can only hope you haven't been bothered with multiple notification and i do very much appreciate you getting back to me and especially appreciate your kindness as id been so very incorrect which I'm more than a little embarrassed about, to blame anyone else for my lack of knowledge would be wrong of me but all can say as any form of defence is we have not looked at male Hysteria or been made aware of it on the M.A I'm doing. My understanding thus far is that Charcot asserted that Hysteria was a genetic condition so the patient or client as we would call them today were genetically predisposed to the condition, therefore, it applied to both genders whereas Freud proposed it was a psychological disorder after diagnosing both himself and his brother, Freud then rejected the notion they both suffered with hysteria ( one could assume from this both Freud and his younger brother had suffered sexual abuse but that is beyond the scope of this post, however, if you have any thoughts they would be welcome) I assume this at the time Freud rejected his own Seduction Theory 1897 ? Am i now correct in saying Freud then proposing the source of hysterical symptoms as infantile traumatic sexual experience which could be real or imagined. The notion of imagined traumatic sexual experiences brought disbelief of a clients into the equation do you feel this is a legacy of Freud we still see today as many survivors of abuse are not believed or it's somehow part of the innate human condition as it's so horrifying ? In this assertion Freud also brought gender in through the back door so to speak: proposing some degree of gendered bias in terms of the clients reaction towards infantile sexual experience, the attitude of the client ( passive or active) which determined the nature of the pathology women would mostly be passive = hysteria and men would mostly be active = obsession/ obsessional neurosis, to my mind there is an inference that women are more likely to suffer Hysteria do you agree ? It is now my understanding that Freud draw his conclusions in regards to Hysteria from18 case studies 12 women and 6 men. In my pervious post, all be it misguided, i was trying to look at the social affects or indeed if there where any of the old understanding of Hysteria (coming from the Greek meaning womb) so men wouldn't have been considered have it and whether this in some way effected male's even going to see Freud ( I don't know how the medical profession worked then) which would have had an effect on his subject group and, therefore, the corresponding theory he wrote. If my personal research is correct we see that only 6 men where a part of Freud's empirical research on Hysteria do you think this would have been in some way a part of why he then proposed the aforementioned this seemingly gendered approach ? Many thanks if it wasn't for your videos and now personal correspondence i wouldn't be getting through my M.A.
@@SuperLenton Read Elaine Showalter “Hystories”
Why is it difficult to hypothesize that as human beings, we were genetically programmed to be wired for reproduction in this manner, since we all evolved through nature, as were animals. An easy, approachable trigger for humans would be the mother. Then, once adolescence was reached hormones set sexuality in motion, at that time or as young adults.
Likewise, why is it difficult to hypothesize that one's sexual preference is in our genes. I've alway believed our sexual choice is part of we we are, genetically. Anything else makes no sense to me. Furthermore, who cares about the sexual identity of others? What possible difference could it make to those not involved? I can only imagine how difficult it must be to sort these emotions out in a our judgmental society.
I'm sure the Oedipus complex is involved in some way in everything but thinking it has some direct relationship with the determining of sexual preference is a bit of a waste of time
Master/slave dialectic
I don't think there's any evidence that all cultures cope with Oedipal trauma.
When you speak of the Oedipus complex in my opinion it seems like when you start bringing in the homosexual aspect of women or men it further complicates the theory because men and women that are homosexuals are a minority they're an exception they're not the rule so my thinking is I understand that some people and even in my family they desire the same sex and that's fine but when you're speaking of something like the Oedipus complex shouldn't you stick to how majority of the human population acts in the Oedipus complex instead of trying to explain the theory by the exceptions because rules are not made by exceptions they're made by the majority
Wait, what is the deal with these random value judgements about non-monogamy? What about your own ideology obstructs your perspective from a more complex understanding of this dynamic?