Freud's psychological theory and influence

¶ … Oedipus Complex rests at the very center of psychoanalytic work of Sigmund Freud and has been extensively discussed ever since the theory first came out. Oedipus complex refers to a stage in early development when a young child becomes obsessed with parent of the opposite sex and thus harbors feelings of jealousy towards parent of the same sex. This phenomenon, according to Freud, was more pronounced in boys than girls even though both may experience the same feelings towards their parents. The boy child at this stage starts developing sexual feelings towards his mother and aggression towards his father. Freud believed that children need to resolve this feeling which he called dissolution of Oedipus complex for healthier psychological and emotional development. Freud also associated the fear of castration with Oedipus complex and later felt that Id, superego and ego development could also be connected with the same feelings of love and aggression towards parents felt earlier in life. Freud felt this was something experienced by every child as he wrote:

His [Oedipus'] destiny moves us only because it might have been ours -- because the oracle laid the same curse upon us before our birth as upon him. It is the fate of all of us, perhaps, to direct our first sexual impulse towards our mother and our first hatred and our first murderous wish against our father. Our dreams convince us that this is so. (Freud, p.296)

While Freud's theory has been widely studied, there is no evidence to suggest that it holds true for everyone. In fact due to Freud's limited empirical study and experience, the theory raises serious doubts. I do not agree with Freud that every child experiences Oedipus complex based on my own observation and reading. From what I have observed, children of both sexes can develop a very close and healthy relationship with their fathers at a very young age and there appears to be no hostility at all. Freud theories are also not based on empirical evidence which is why they lose their credibility. Reuben Fine explains that Freud was "an empirical scientist who generalized from the observations, primarily clinical, that he made" (Fine viii). But it appears that Freud's empirical experience was very restricted and he would make assumptions about the entire population based on few observations. For example when what Freud called development of sexual feelings and masturbation in early childhood can be seriously questioned. Joseph Nuttin instead found that "the child plays with his penis and is interested in it, as he is interested in many objects which have the same characteristics of flexibility and elasticity" (Nuttin 70).

It is thus very likely that Freud would develop a hypothesis and mould people's behavior to fit his hypothesis instead of it being the other way around. Macmillan complains of Freud's inability to accept his own influence on people's behavior or on the development of rather questionable theories: "he never accepted that influences transmitted unconsciously from him to them had important effects upon what they claimed to recall about the origins of their symptoms" (Macmillan 73). Freud has often forced his observations to fit his hypothesis and thus there is no way to validate his conclusions. There is no empirical studies conducted by him to support his theory on 'Oedipus Complex' instead what we get is series of generalizations based on Freud's rather dubious observations. This is proven by those who have cross-checked the validity of Freud's claims. For example his theory of superego and ego which he connected with 'Oedipus Complex' were based on nothing more than some anecdotal evidence and vague ideas as Esternon found:

[Freud] observes that the ego's 'three tyrannical masters are the external world, the super-ego and the id', but since this is saying little more than that man's consciousness is governed by his environment, his conscience, and his innate instincts, it is hardly a great revelation (Webster 292).