Freud’s Use Of Myth Of Oedipus
The myth of Oedipus narrates the tale of a young male, prophesized by the oracle to slay his father (Morford and Lenardon, 2006). Oedipus’s parents abandoned him. He was adopted but later on he returned unintentionally fulfilling the prophecy by slaying his father and getting married with his mother. Later on, the myth turned out to be a vital component in Freud’s development of the oedipal complex (Baker, 2004). This discussion would take on Freud’s use of the myth, the account of Oedipus. Critics have pointed out Freud’s failure to recognize the nature and function of myths by concluding a solitary version of the myth by a single author. Freud argued for complete legitimacy to the meaning of the myth, consequently employing it as an argument for his psychoanalytic theories.
Considered as the father of psychoanalysis, Austrian Neurologist, Sigmund Freud was also known for his enthrallment for myths. He evaluated them to dreaming, putting forward the argument that they both mirror the human mind, and that this could be accessed by means of interpretation, otherwise referred to as psychoanalysis (Rycroft, 1995). He argued that subdued feelings from childhood would return to haunt individuals at the time of their adulthood. As Freud argues, every boy harbors a covert yearning to have sex with their mother, and kill their father, since he serves as the man who keeps his mother away from him (Strachey, n.d.). These subdued urges are manifested in one’s dreams. Freud further indicates that the myths come out as a consequence of psychological impulses, and consequently, an individual could apply psychoanalysis to any character or creator of the story. By arguing that that the characters of the myth are not actual people, and that these kinds of stories typically multi-authored, this could be critiqued. One noted flaw with Freud’s use of the myth of Oedipus is the assumption that Oedipus had an oedipal complex.
Oedipus takes the life of his biological father and eventually weds his birthmother without prior knowledge that they were his parents (Lowell, 1995). There is now the criticism as to how Oedipus could have acted with his repressed feelings towards his parents? On the other hand, Freud used Locasta’s comment to to Laius as a proof for the strong point of his theory. Locasta claimed that countless men experience sexual dreams concerning their mothers and Freud confirms this thought with his own writing indicating that: This discovery is confirmed by a legend that has come down to us from classical antiquity.
The Oedipus complex brought about discomfort and discord among psychoanalysts (Baker, 2004). Freud initially put forward the foundation of the theory, without revealing the name of Oedipus, in The Interpretation of Dreams in the year 1900.
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