Oedipus Complex Essays (Examples)

Oedipus Complex in Shakespeare's Hamlet
Hamlet is one of the greatest tragedies of all times, having been put into film and play on numerous occasions throughout the past centuries. Aside from its current popularity, the play is also intriguing since it enjoyed immense success immediately after being written, a rare situation for other plays.

Hamlet, by the full name of the tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is still a mystery today and depicts scenes of love, passion, hatred and pure madness. In the play, the real and the metaphysical realms coexist as the people -- some of the characters -- see ghosts -- the ghost of the deceased King Hamlet. The ghost speaks to Prince Hamlet, the son of the deceased king and informs him that he -- the king -- had been poisoned by Claudius, his own brother, who had, meanwhile become the new king and wedded Gertrude,…

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…

Oedipus is one of the most famous names in Greek mythology. His name has become both a psychological complex as well as a familiar joke. His story has come to be a synonym as well for the capriciousness of fate. But a truer picture of the character of Oedipus suggests that, rather than being an unwitting victim, Oedipus a clear hand in his own demise. Despite its reputation, Sophocles' play "Oedipus the King" is a tragedy of character rather than of an innocent condemned by fate. Oedipus' tragic flaw his confidence and his arrogance that he understands what is happening to himself and his city. Of course, Oedipus really understands nothing.
The play begins by Oedipus, king of Thebes talking to his "children" or citizens, bemoaning the fact that Thebes is now under a plague. (ines 1-5, source from iterature and Ourselves) The priest tells Oedipus, "Now we pray to…

The fact that most men sublimate this feeling, and instead identify with their father to obtain the maternal figure in the form of another woman, is the reason the Oedipus myth was generated in the first place.
Freud's theory was popular not only 'on the couch' but in literary theory. Ernest Jones suggested that it is the reason Hamlet cannot bring himself to kill his uncle: "Now comes the father's death and the mother's second marriage. The long 'repressed' desire to take his father's place in his mother's affection is stimulated to unconscious activity by the sight of some one usurping this place exactly as he himself had once longed to do… the two recent events, the father's death and the mother's second marriage . . . represented ideas which in Hamlet's unconscious fantasy had for many years been closely associated" (Jones 98-99).

Regardless of the merit of Freud's theory,…

He complains that his name "is now begrimed and black" (3.3.384) and fears that Desdemona has made him a "fixed figure for the time of scorn" (4.2.53). His fears might be those of any man, insecure in his position, concerned about how he is viewed. Thus, both heroes are true to life in that each has his own particular faults, like any man.
Aristotle's fourth condition of the tragic hero is "consistency: for though the subject of imitation…be inconsistent, still he must be consistently inconsistent" (43). As Aristotle suggests, both characters are inconsistently consistent, though in their own ways. Oedipus bounces from being high-minded, caring and affectionate to being almost simple-minded, careless and angry any time his pride is pricked. For example, even when the evidence all points to the truth of what the priest says, Oedipus is reluctant to admit it; yet when his wife tries to undermine what…

Oedipus: A King of Multiple Archetypal Meanings, as well as Multiple Tragedies
"hat walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?" In answering the question to the Sphinx's riddle with the word 'man,' "Oedipus the King" of Sophocles seals his fate. He will marry the widowed queen of Thebes, having unwittingly dispensed with his father during a roadside brawl. Perhaps because the answer to this riddle so perfectly embodies Oedipus' own struggle, this character's answer has a special poignancy for the reader or viewer of the play. Oedipus began his life crawling on all fours as one of the lowest of babes, retrieved by a shepherd shortly after being abandoned at birth. In the noontime of his life, he was raised high as a king, standing on two legs. Then, after being exposed as a parricide and of having engaged…

Sigmund Freud believed humans early on in development had a sexual need. This was seen through his perspective of desire and emotion within the unconscious part of the human mind. To Freud, sexuality is a key component to human personality and thus plays an important role in a child's development. This is evidenced in Mary Williamson's article, "The importance of fathers in relation to their daughters' psychosexual development". Essentially, daughters develop their sexuality based on their interactions with their father. By having formed a sexual attraction in a metaphorical sense to the father, without the mother's intervention, a daughter can properly develop a satisfactory gender or psychosexual identity.
The beginning of the article is a rather lengthy introduction explaining how the information provided came to be. Williamson attempts to explain her intentions within the lens of various psychoanalytic approaches covering the father-daughter relationship. She also states that the formation of…

Oedipus Exemplifies or Refutes Aristotle's Definition of a Tragic Hero
Aristotle's, the Greek philosopher definition of a tragic hero and tragedy has been influential since he set these definitions down in The Poetics. These definitions were viewed as important during the Renaissance, when scores of writers shaped their writings on the works of the ancient Rome and Greece. Aristotle asserted that tragedies follow the descent of a tragic hero or a central character, from a noble and high position to a low one. A tragic hero posse some tragic flaws, which cause his, fall from fortune, or turnaround of fortune, and to some point, the tragic hero realizes that his own mistakes have caused the turnaround of his fortune. Aristotle also noted that the tragic fall of a hero or a central character in a play stirs up fear to the audience or the reader given that the audience sympathizes…

In this sense, the time and setting of these two plays are less significant because each of the two addresses universal questions of fate, destiny, free will, and the meaning of life, which are as current today as they were over 2000 years ago, when Oedipus Rex was written, for instance.
The arker Face of the Earth reflects many of the themes and plot elements that also occur in the ancient Greek play by Sophocles entitled Oedipus Rex. In both cases, although the protagonists are faced with challenges by the powerful forces of destiny, their fate is direct consequence of their choice regarding the exercise of free will. Both Augustus and Oedipus are victims of their own bloody choices. Because their actions are no longer controlled by rational thought, they exercise their free will poorly hence they must accept the consequences of their actions and suffer the painful fate that…

Oedipal Hamlet
Of all the great works of illiam Shakespeare, arguably his masterpiece is Hamlet. It is also perhaps his most famous work. People who have never seen a production or read it still have a vague understanding about the play's basic plot. This is of course the story of a young prince of Denmark who is mourning for his recently dead father, also named Hamlet who may or may not have seen his father's ghost who claims the king was murdered by Prince Hamlet's Uncle Claudius. The uncle has very quickly taken control of the Danish throne and married Hamlet's mother Queen Gertrude. In the five hundred years since it was first written, Hamlet has been analyzed and criticized by some of the top minds in academia, in fields such as English, Psychology, and History. The play is rich enough to lend itself to a wide range of interpretations,…

For Oedipus to be considered successful, then, he would have had to challenge his own fate and succeed, rather than enact it entirely according to what was set out for him. In Hamlet, on the other hand, the enemy is tangible and human in the form of Hamlet's uncle, and thus Hamlet is able to confront and vanquish him. Thus, Oedipus represents a kind of ignorant struggle against the ideological forces which control anyone in society, a struggle that can never succeed so long as those forces remain indistinct and ephemeral. Hamlet, on the other hand, demonstrates a pointed struggle against some of the very same tendencies, but in this case, they are identified, named, and thus exists the potential for overcoming them.
Though written in wildly different historical contexts, Sophocles Oedipus Rex and illiam Shakespeare's Hamlet actually have a lot to say about each other, because the titular characters…

Ignorance in Oedipus ex
The toll of ignorance and deception on Oedipus ex

Ignorance plays a major role in the fates of several characters in the Greek tragedy Oedipus ex. In the play, ignorance is not only contained to the characters and their backgrounds, such as Oedipus and Jocasta, but also to the former Theban king, Laius. Because of their complex relationship with each other, and the lies that Laius told Jocasta, the truth about the relationship between Oedipus, Jocasta, and Laius remains a mystery until a messenger informs Oedipus of how he truly killed his father and assumed the throne in his place. Oedipus' and Jocasta's ignorance of their true relationship prior to becoming king and queen of Thebes was caused by Laius' ignorance of destiny and his (failed) attempt to defy a prophecy.

In the play, many, if not all, the tragedies that befall Thebes and the Theban…

In this, the individual does soak up the behaviors of those he or she is associated with. Yet, this is out of mimicking others behavior, with no regard for self gain. On the other hand, Bandura placed more emphasis as development being based on a balance between the environment and one's internally set goals. From this perspective, the individual mimics behaviors that lead to the achievement of certain goals, specifically engineering a more personal purpose to what is learned.
Bandura can also be seen as contrasting the theories of Jean Piaget as well. Once again, the two place a huge role on the nature of social environments on learning and development. Still, there are clear differences. First, there are clearly issues in regards to when the stages of development actually occur. The two present different age ranges for the important stages. Then, there is the increased importance of the social…

Freud Concepts of Instincts, Drives
Desires, instincts, and drives are central to Freud's psychoanalytical theory. Although Sigmund Freud altered his theories throughout the course of his career, the core concepts of instincts and drives remain relatively constant. Freud first expressed the basic human instincts as being hunger and sex. Later, his theories matured, and Freud deeply analyzed the nature of human sexual drives. In his writings, Freud focused much on the conflicts that generally arise between the individual's innate instincts and the rules and mores of the society. All human beings continually struggle through various stages of their psycho-social development to restrain and express their desires, drives, and instincts. Freud framed these conflicts between desire and civilization into two major groupings: the conflict between sexual drives and civilization; and the conflict between self-serving happiness and civilization.

Freud's views on human sexuality are notorious and controversial. His Oedipus complex and other…

He questions whether he should try to clear the court of corruption or just give up and end his life now. It is this emotional doubt that drives Hamlet to act deranged at times, but he overcomes it, and almost manages to answer the difficult questions posed in his life. In Act V, when calm returns, Hamlet repents his behavior (V, ii, 75-78) (Lidz, 164).
In Lidz's book Freud is quoted as saying "that if anyone holds and expresses to others an opinion of himself such as this [Hamlet's "Use every man after his desert, and who shall escape whipping?"], he is ill, whether he is speaking the truth whether he is being more or less unfair to himself." Though Hamlet has proved his intellectual stability, he is quite obviously emotionally "ill."

This emotional illness and uncertainty is why Hamlet procrastinates in the killing of Claudius. On his way to…

He completely looses himself in the image of his mother. He is so dissociated that he does not even know he is the one conducting the action of murder. Norman is "horrified to discover that his mother (actually his sub-personality) has stabbed a woman to death in the shower," (Comer 2003:224). To him, it was his mother, whom he has no control over. When he slips into that state Norman Bates disappears; he dissociates himself from a potentially harmful situation and allows the dominant personality of his mother take over completely. In the end, after all the trauma, Norman completely recedes into himself; "You see, when the mind houses two personalities, there's always a conflict, a battle. In Norman's case, the battle is over…and the dominant personality has won," (Hitchcock 160). His mother, who serves as his safety net, completely takes over when his psychosis is discovered.
His story is…

Yes, the Oedipus complex aspect of Shakespeare it gives us and which in turn invites us to think about the issue of subjectivity, the myth and its relation to psychoanalytic theory. (Selfe, 1999, p292-322)
Hemlet and Postcolonial theory

Postcolonial theory was born as a result of the publication of the famous work of Edward Said, Orientalism (1978). This theory claim that some authors (Paul Gilroy, Achille Mbembe, Francoise Verges, etc.) and that seem so elegant in its formulation, in my opinion raises three fundamental problems: At a time when we are witnessing the emergence of new expressions of colonialism (colonialism, cultural, political and economic globalization, neo-colonialism nestled in the relationship between the hegemonic colonial past and their old colonies, colonialism in disguise that structure the relationship between international institutions and developing countries, institutions from the rest behest of the former colonial powers according to their interests), speak of post-colonial era…

When one thinks about Freud's theory one has to presume Freud's conscious thoughts or his theory regarding an Oedipus complex represents not his real thoughts but his defensive condensations, displacements, reversals, omissions, and distortions of his real thoughts. If one wishes to look inside his real thoughts regarding an Oedipus complex, one has to analyze and interpret the manifest content of his thought with these defenses in mind. According to Freud, a person must use this method of analysis to overcome such defenses and resistances. The first rule of Freud's technique was to reject the manifest content or the apparent meaning of the dream, symptom, or activity as merely a distorted substitute for one's real thoughts (Freud's Theory Analyzed -- a eport on esearch n.d).

Freud thought that one's conscious thoughts would be unconsciously determined and distorted by what one had censored. One's conscious thoughts condensed, displaced, reversed, omitted, covertly…

Sexual organs in older adults rarely fail completely. When failure does occur, it is generally the by-product of a medical intervention such as surgery or medications (Huffstetler, 2006)."

he facts of this article have been well supported by other reading that I have done in the past. I have spent time looking at various aspects human sexuality among older people and have found the research and texts that have been recently published all support the belief that older people do enjoy and continue to have sexual relations.

For years this was a topic that was not discussed nor was much research done to determine its importance or existence among society residents, but in more recent years there has been an increased focus on the sexuality of older adults.

Many studies have looked at the older adult's interest in sex as well as the ability to participate in sexual relations with…

Freud and Erikson Theory
Compare and Contrast Freud and Erikson Theory

This essay begins by discussing Psychoanalytic Theory proposed by Sigmund Freud; the theory portrays that human behaviour is the result of conflict between the biological drives that develop slowly from childhood and play a significant part in determining a person's character. After a short review of the Psychoanalytic theory and evaluating it against modern psychoanalytic perspectives, the study will then cover a quite different theory i.e. Erikson's theory that reduces the significance of biological contributions. Erikson's Theory supposes that character/personality development is determined by not only biological factors but also by historical, ethnic, and cognitive factors. Erikson's theory explains challenges or issues that people face in the modern world. The fact that words such as "inner-space," "identity crisis" and "lifespan" have gained prominence in spoken and written language is testament to Erikson Theory's relevance. The Erikson's theory also has…

Sexuality can be discussed and analyzed through concepts made in other works of the author. These essays revolve around the idea of sexual perversions and why they develop in the first place. In the second essay, Freud talks about the various psychosocial stages of development. The third essay revolves around the genital stage and how a person is more included to sexuality when he or she begins puberty. Freud has stated that normal sexual activity between a man and a woman and is only limited to sexual intercourse. Anything apart from that is considered a perversion or a deviation from normal human sexual activity.
Conclusion derived from this the theory of sexuality and other Freudian concepts is that: Abnormal sexual perversions develop in a person due to psychosocial conflict in life and these perversions are a threat to stability of civilization. Freud insists on the notion that sexuality is a…

Frank O'Connor
Frank O'Conner was born on September 17, 1903, in the slums of Cork, Ireland, and died on March 10, 1966 in Dublin, Ireland. Though his formal education never went past grade school, he wrote more than two hundred short stories, many of them published first in The New Yorker, as well as two novels, several plays, poetry, translations, literary and cultural criticism, and two volumes of an autobiography. He taught and lectured at Harvard among other universities and colleges, and received an honorary doctorate from Trinity College.

O'Conner was the only son of Michael (Mick) O'Donovan, a former British soldier and alcoholic, Minnie O'Connor, an orphan from a young age. Raised in poverty, his mother was forced to work as a charwoman in order to supplement the family income. According to Hilary Lennon, O'Connor was a lonely, timid and frail child who was sick from school often. He…

Grief
Freud's theory of Grief and bereavement

Grade Course

Id, Ego and the Superego or the conscious and the unconscious mind are some of the terms which are well-known by almost every individual. These words not only point out to the field of Psychology but also to the man who coined them and proposed a new realm of theories behind each of it; Sigmund Freud. He is famous for being the father of psychoanalysis and the techniques of hypnosis, dream interpretation and free association which he has used to successfully treat his patients. Psychology is devoid without Freud. This is not only because of the theories which he proposed but also because of his followers and those who extended his basic concept with a new touch. Freud in all his theories talks about the past to be affecting the present. In other words, the unconscious mind which is the hidden…

However, the Gilgamesh myth is not simply about the flood. It also reflects specific values of understanding the impermanence of society and the capricious nature of the gods. As Gilgamesh learns to become a better man and a better leader, specific community values are expressed that may have been the concerns of Mesopotamian society, not simply the human consciousness, such as the need for a strong king and the capricious nature of a world where natural disasters and foreign invasions were common. The continued resonance of the Gilgamesh myth could suggest that the myth has a common, human resonance that transcends its specific and original concerns. But rather than demonstrating the evidence of the collective mythmaking unconscious, it might simply demonstrate the historical need for leadership at times of crisis, and frustrations with common natural disasters. This myth than became reinterpreted in other communities.

There are many stories of floods…

Psycho
Alfred Hitchcok's Psycho was released in 1960, and encapsulates the social, psychological, and political tensions of the Cold ar era. As Raubicheck and Serebnick point out, Psycho could have been a bridge to the 1960s but the film is "less linked to and reflective of the so-called radical sixties than they are of the more controlled fifties and possess more cultural texture of this earlier era," (17). The issues related to gender, sexuality, and sexual repression in the film are likewise reflective of the interest in Freudian psychoanalysis that prevailed during the 1950s. Rebello points out that the popularity of Freudian psychology and theories like the Oedipus complex are played out on the screen in Psycho. Anthony Perkins's character Norman Bates is "connected with a much larger discussion, in the early Cold ar, of political and sexual deviance," (Genter 134). In Psycho, Bates becomes the archetype of the psychopath,…

Cognitive Behavior Therapy- A Case Study
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) Case Study

Case report

K is a forty-eight-year female who referred to Midlothian's clinical psychology psychosis service. K has a twenty-year history of mental health conditions. She first decided to contact mental health services because of the episodes of paranoia and severe depression she had experienced. During her initial contact with the mental health services she was diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder in 1996. When she was first referred to the mental health services department she was a single. She told of having only two close relationships in her past life. She however also said that she found these relationships challenging when it came to intimate contact. She also generally described that she found it somewhat difficult to form friendships or to trust people in her life. Despite the mental health conditions her general physical well-being was good. K was prescribed…

Behavioral Psychology
The main link between the brain and the mind is through the nervous system. It processes information from various regions in the body and transmits it via electrical and chemical signals. The study of the relationship that the brain has on the mind, consciousness and behavior is called behavioral psychology. Decades ago, scientists would use electrodes to stimulate various regions of the brain to understand how it affected the body. Today psychologists use modern radiological techniques to understand mental processes and behaviorism in diseases ranging from Huntington to Epilepsy. (Nobus, 2000)

Although many interesting stories and interpretations have led to the evolution of biological psychology, a great contribution to this field was made by the famous psychologist, Signmund Freud.

Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 and spent most of his life in Vienna. From early on in life, Freud had a strong inclination towards human concerns, and even…

Jewish Monotheism
Historians of Judaism actually date the strong Jewish emphasis on monotheism somewhat later than expected within Jewish history. The archaeological discovery of idols and artifacts indicating cultic participation from the time of Israel's presence in Canaan has seemed to indicate a relative laxity in actual practice before the Babylonian captivity, while textual criticism seems agreed that most of the Torah's foregrounded statements of strong monotheism date from textual recensions during the Babylonian captivity, and thus substantially post-date both the J-writer and the E-writer of the Old Testament (Moberly 217). But the strong emphasis on monotheism which comprises the first commandment given by Yahweh to Moses is a defining feature of Judaism in prevailing polytheistic cultures where the Jews can define their religion in opposition, so to speak. I would like to examine three separate ways in which Jewish monotheism defined itself against a kind of prevailing cultural polytheism.…

MFT: Psychology of Violence- Domestic Violence, Abuse and Legal Mandates
Violence has been described as any form of aggression that could result in either psychological or physical injury. From the early beginning of the current century, violence has increasingly become a pressing issue for behavioural experts. Despite the increased focus on violence in the last two decades, most of the studies tend to investigate effects on victims or risk factors with only a handful looking into the underlying causes of violence and the psychology behind it. Moreover, spousal battering or domestic violence as it is more commonly known, has received lesser attention despite the increase in such kind of violence. This study aims to investigate the main theories that explain the root causes of violence, distinguish cultural, gender and psychological dimensions of violence and also highlight the treatment and violence prevention methods. Lastly, this paper aims to look into the…

Close is Too Close: What is Wrong with Incest?
This paper outlines incest as a social taboo with reference to the Jewish, Native American, and Malagasy cultures and identifies what is wrong with the practice of incest. It has 7 sources.

Definition of Incest

Incest or the sexual relations between persons to whom marriage is prohibited by custom or law because of close kingship [Kottak 2002] is a social phenomenon that differ from culture to culture and by definition too they differentiate from one group to the next. The reason being that customs, traditions and cultures all vary due to the accepted norms as well as religion found in these groups and hence the prohibition or the allowance for people to marry siblings differs greatly. Inter-marriage to close relatives in the American culture for instance is considered taboo while in the Jewish it is considered compulsory. What triggers such social…

& #8230; in its heyday there was elitism and arrogance among psychoanalysts, a sense of having superior knowledge that set us up for a fall" (Altman, ¶ 3). In a field that claims to possess knowledge of the unconscious, Altman asserts, this constitutes an occupational hazard. To counter the temptation to feel more knowledgeable than others, whether patients or the public in general, therapists who practice psychoanalytic therapy, need to remember that the depths of their own unconscious realms are as unfathomable as those they treat.
Psychoanalysis, nevertheless, possesses particularly valuable offerings, despite numerous attacks on meaning. Due to the fact that people currently, continuing to move faster and faster as they pursue success and security. Consequently, "thoughtfulness and self-reflection get crowded out. People are instrumentalized, working around the clock, on their cell phones and e-mail and Blackberries, allowing themselves to be exploited in the service of the corporate bottom…

In contrast to both Mead and Freud: "The genius of Malinowski was to perceive, and substantiate, the fact that the mind of the 'primitive' man was essentially no different than that of 'civilized' peoples. That is, although beliefs, motives, and emotional responses to situations might vary markedly from one culture to the next (a fact which would disprove the universality of Freud's Oedipal Complex), the ability of the mind to perceive and process information and to formulate creative, intelligent responses was the same regardless of race or culture" (Bronislaw Malinowski, NNMD, 2009). Myths, irrational as they might be, were common to all cultures -- and all cultures had unique elements of such irrationality. Malinowski's attitudes and expressions prefigure modern postmodernism and its emphasis on subjectivity and irrationality, and its suggestion that sexuality is merely one impulse amongst many, as opposed to the most significant impulse, as believed by Freud and…

The Oedipus complex suggests that every son wants to marry his mother and kill his father -- and that is precisely what Claudius does. "Sex and the life instincts in general are, of course, represented somewhere in Jung's system. They are a part of an archetype called the shadow. It derives from our prehuman, animal past, when our concerns were limited to survival and reproduction, and when we weren't self-conscious" (Boeree 1997). Hamlet's intellect and rationality are suppressed by his philosophical knowledge, as exemplified in his desire to return to ittenberg at the beginning of the play. Claudius, in contrast to Hamlet, takes what he wants. Before he learns of Claudius' crime by the ghost, Hamlet does not seek bloody revenge, or construct a plot like Claudius may have done -- he merely mourns that his mother has remarried and been 'stained.' Thus, Claudius' skillful wielding of power, his open…

For a person working through a shadowy part of him- or herself, the goal can be as generic as better self-knowledge and self-management.
Working through must be recognized as a process, but also as a process with a certain goal in mind. To successfully work through any part of the self, it must also be recognized that certain unpleasant elements may be uncovered before the goal is reached. The therapist must be able to help the client adhere to the process.

Stages of Development

According to object relations theory, human development entails a lifelong effort to break away from the dependency established in early childhood in order to reach the adult states of mutuality and exchange. The goal is to break the limitations of dependency in order to reach the autonomy that might be expected from the stage of adulthood. If a person does not break away from these bonds,…

Religion is an analysis of seven works that the author, Daniel Pals, believes have shaped the understanding of religion in the past century. These theories represent seminal attempts to see religion in its social context as a system of values and beliefs, something that would be popularized by French structuralists and students of myth and semiotics in the last half of the 20th century. The theories reviewed put forth a 'scientific approach to religion' that 'first caught the imagination of serious scholars' in the 19th century. (pg. 10) These theories 'exercised a shaping influence not only on religion but on the whole intellectual culture of our century.' Some of the names put to us are familiar to us, such as Freud and Marx, whereas others are more obscure, such as Tylor and Frazer, Emile Durkheim, Mircea Eliade, E.E. Evans-Pritchard, and Clifford Geertz. The author picks what might be called the…

Analysis of Psycho Alfred Hitchcock directed a movie called Psycho in 1960. The movie is a horror laced with lots of psychological suspense. The movie storyline is developed from Psycho, a novel written by Robert Block and published in 1959. The novel, on its part, drew inspiration from Ed Gein murders. Psycho has been widely regarded as the first-ever slasher film. Although it got mixed reviews at the onset, it is now considered one of the greatest films produced by Hitchcock, and indeed one of the greatest films of all time.
Indeed, Antony Perkins, the Ed Gein (Norman Bates), was rated the second-best movie villain of all time by the American Film Institute (Gorshin, 2014). According to common parlance, Norman Bates suffers from Disassociate Identity Disorder ( DID), which was earlier known as multiple personality disorder. This view is interesting in all its weight and breadth. It is also a…

Civilization instills certain necessary checks to contain sexual and aggressive impulses, like feelings of guilt. The original, Oedipal anger of the boy against the father is turned inward, against himself, given that he is taught that it is 'wrong' to want to hurt his father and desire his mother.
Civilization and its Discontents is partially an argument against utopian philosophies like Marxism. Freud's concept is that society is inherently masochistic in nature, dependent upon feelings of guilt and sacrifice to function. A utopia is impossible. The innate impulses of desire and aggressiveness of the individual will always be in conflict with other individuals and the collective. To be truly 'happy' in an ecstatic sense would mean destroying the rights of others. If everyone lived by the law of the id, then only the strongest would survive. Society aims for moderation: a moderate satisfaction of the desires of all people through…

This handbook was compiled as a remedy in the form of a sourcebook or guide to current work on free will and related subjects for those who wish to keep up with the latest research. (p. 3)
What is often called "the free will issue" or "the problem of free will," when viewed in historical perspective, is related to a cluster of philosophical issues -- all of them to be dealt with to some degree in this volume. 3 These include issues about (1) moral agency and responsibility, dignity, desert, accountability, and blameworthiness in ethics; (2) the nature and limits of human freedom, autonomy, coercion, and control in social and political theory; issues about (3) compulsion, addiction, self-control, self-deception, and weakness of will in philosophical psychology; (4) criminal liability, responsibility, and punishment in legal theory; (5) the relation of mind to body, consciousness, the nature of action, 4 and personhood…

"The work of civilization has become increasingly the business of men, it confronts them with ever more difficult tasks and compels them to carry out instinctual sublimations of which women are little capable" (Rosenfels 21).
When considering leaders and their followers, Freud believed that some people were meant to be controlled as a result of their laziness and of their instinctual abandonment. These individuals influence each-other in adopting an indifferent attitude with regard to their own fate. They are saved by people who are capable to set an example through their strength of will and who take on managerial positions in order to control the masses (Rosenfels 21).

One of the reasons for which Freud expressed dissatisfaction with his experience in the U.S. was the fact that he did not appreciate the attitude that American husbands had in regard to their wives. He believed that one had to control his…

Piagetian, Ericksonian, And Freudian Stages of Development
Human beings progress gradually from childhood to adulthood, going through stages that are distinct, continuous, and improving. Developmental psychologists like Freud, Piaget, and Erickson came up with different theories concerning the stages that people often undergo as they grow from childhood. This study discusses the similarities and the differences between the three theories with examples of the stages mentioned by each given. The contrast and comparison will make people appreciate the importance of the three theories of human development

Similarities

Erickson's theory had the highest number of stages of development compared to the other two. His theory covered eight main stages from birth to death of an individual. According to Erickson, the successful completion of a stage marked a good beginning of the next stage. Failure to fully exhibit and live a stage exhaustively will recur in the future through habits that will…

Neuroscience
Art is processed in the brain, and neuropsychological principles show how. One of the prime examples showing the way art influences the brain is with the Mona Lisa. Da Vinci's painting is notable for the peculiar and ambiguous smile on the subject's face. There is "dynamism" in the smile, artist understood this and deliberately make optical illusion of sorts (Chakravarty 69). The illusion is a product of "imaginative thinking which involves frontal cortical activation in the viewer's brain coupled with activation of the motion area (area V5/MT) of the viewer's visual cortex," (Chakravarty 69). Thus, some viewers may perceive La Gioconda as smiling, and others may not.

Evolutionary Psychology

Cave art proves that creative expression has always been a part of human history. As Dutton points out, the ancient Greeks were the first to recognize that art had a distinct psychological component. Art has functioned differently in different cultures…

Armand Nicholi's The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life is a downright unusual book. It places in counterpoint the thought and writings of two men who never met, spoke, or engaged in any important way with each other's writings -- in fact they had little in common apart from both living in Great Britain at the same time for a period of about fourteen months. These men are the Oxford don, C.S. Lewis, an authority on Renaissance literature and a novelist and Christian polemicist, and the psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, still famous as a doctor and theoretician who posited the existence of such concepts as the Oedipus complex, the unconscious, and polymorphous perversity. Freud never read a word that C.S. Lewis wrote, and while it is extremely unlikely that Lewis could have escaped exposure to the widely disseminated ideas of…

Child Psychology
The author of this brief report has been asked to answer a number of questions relating to child psychology and the development thereof as a child ages and grows. The primary source of answers that shall be used for the answers shall be the tenth chapter of the Berger book. However, the text itself offers other sources and there is a wealth of information on the topics to be discussed in the scholarly sphere. While every child is different and thus develops in their own way, there are tried and true patterns and standards that most children are held to based on the development and progress of millions of prior children.

Emotional development is indeed something that is very strong and in motion when it comes to the early childhood time. As a young child grows, this is when their emotional regulation comes into focus and this in…

During this process is when they could become traumatized, based upon different events surrounding their bodily functions (such as: wetting the bed). At which point, the individual may exhibit a host of behaviors later on life to include: shyness, domination and compulsive disorders. In the phallic stage (which lasts from 3 -- 5 years old), the child becomes aware of their gender. It is at this stage that the personality is fully developed, with the child cultivating a love for their mother or father (commonly called the Electra or Oedipus complexes). Latency is when there is little to no development in the personality during this part of someone's life. The genital stage begins at the age of 12 years old. During this part of an individual's life, is when the person will begin to a have a renewed interest in: their sexual orientation and those who they are attracted to.…

Butler believes that gender differences stem from the cultural practice of emulating gender biased acts over a long period of time. Thus, the male may act possessive over the female because that what has been reproduced within his own culture time and time again. This is then a more culturally-based philosophy, with less reliance on the psychology of the isolated individual.
Within the context of social work, both theorists also take individual stances. Chodorow believes that the worker should take a more passive stance to their client, based on Freud's techniques first seen in psychoanalysis. Thus, social workers use empathy to tune into the subconscious of the client, and in a very passive and non-threatening way that the client may not even consciously realize. With threats minimized in the context of the session, the social worker can then get a better and unbiased understanding of the client. Butler presents the…

Thus, this aspect can multiply into many sub-genres that focus on one or more aspects of the social world as they contribute to influencing behaviors and innate thought processes. Focusing on the social means looking for more abstract concepts that relate to existence within a social world. Actually trying to predict later success in publication, "Predicting the future success of junior scholars is of great concern to academic hiring committees," (Haslam & Lamb 2009:144). Yet it is based within two correlating variables that can then be compared, "It is therefore reasonable to predict that publication success during graduate school may be associated with publication success later in people's academic careers," (Haslam & Lamb 2009:144). Although the subject is socially constructed, the method of analysis is still quantitatively measured. Even this study shows quantitative measurement use- using mathematical prediction models in analysis of data (Haslam & Lamb 2009). egression analysis, common…

[1] However, in his greed he puts on his finger a ring that had belonged to the giant, and this ring forces the man to cry out, "Here I am! Here I am!" In order to save himself from being discovered, he bites off his own finger to make the magic stop. Then, lost in the wilderness, the ex-robber tells of frightening forest-entitities, including a woman who is going to commit infanticide and feed her own child to a group of men. The man makes her instead cook a hanged robber for dinner, and, having hung himself in a tree in the place of the robber, has a chunk of his flesh removed from his side to be eaten. In the last story, Giants are frightened away by thunder. The Queen is pleased by the stories and released the man's children. (Grimm)
In the Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and…

Psychoanalytic Approach to Personality
The three major psychoanalytic theories and approaches to personality could not be more different. Freud, who focuses on early childhood and sexual urges, differs from Jung who focuses on the unconscious, who differs from Adler who focuses on human motivation and superiority (Weiten, 2005). Of course, what they all have in common is trying to tease out an understanding of human personality. This paper will compare and contrast each of Freud's, Jung's, and Adler's psychoanalytic approaches, as well as two characteristics in which this author agrees or disagrees with the theories presented. Then the focus will mainly be on Freud and his structure to personality, and finally using real world examples for his defense mechanisms. Overall, this paper strives to present a well-rounded view of Freud's theory, and the theories of his time.

The structural model for Freud's psychoanalytic theory is based on three different levels…

Psychotherapies
If ape were legal

This is a story about a cancer patient who objectifies women and his life changes drastically for the better after his therapist takes an aggressive stance in one of the personal therapy sessions after a disturbing incident in his group therapy session. This paper reviews the relationship between the patient and the therapist by analyzing their dynamic through the following psychotherapies: Dynamic, Person-Centered, EBT and Alderian.

Dynamic

Psychodynamic psychologists research human habits by trying to find the unseen meanings in things that individuals think, do or state. This needs them to collect huge quantities of qualitative information about individuals, which is typically done with using the specific case-study technique. The topic of the case history is typically an individual who is dealing with a mental ailment and who is being treated with psychoanalysis. The professional gathers details from things the individual states or finishes treatment…

Fight Club
The 1999 film Fight Club is filled with Freudian references, especially those related to death wish, masculinity, and male sexuality. If Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and the narrator played by Edward Norton are indeed one person, then the film addresses the psychoanalytic elements at play in a fractured psyche. Death wish is one of the most poignant themes in Fight Club, which explores an ironic, postmodern violence that is directed against both the self and society. Masculinity and sexuality prove also to be problematic elements for the narrator. The Oedipus complex also surfaces, as it is implied the narrator kills his mother.

Aggression is one of the ways that the narrator can act out his homoerotic fantasies. The narrator feels a keen and poignant sense of alienation and isolation. His predictable life gives him such little pleasure that he develops pathological insomnia: for which he seeks treatment and…

Sigmund Freud and Jean Martin Charcot
Psychology refers to the applied and academic discipline that includes the scientific study of behaviors and mental functions. Anyone who has studied psychology has the immediate understanding groups and individuals through the general principles establish by renowned professionals in this field. Psychologists attempt to understand the role played by mental functions in social behaviors and individuals whilst exploring the biological and psychological process that underlie behaviors and cognitive functions. This study endeavors to explain the important contributions made by two psychologists namely Sigmund Feud and Jean Martin Charcot, and the similarities and contrasts of their contributions.

Sigmund Freud and his contributions

He was a neurologist based in Australia and lived between 1856 and 1939. He was the founder of psychoanalysis. He graduated from the University of Vienna as a qualified doctor and carried out extensive research into aphasia, cerebral palsy and microscopic neuroanatomical. He…

Sigmund Feud is popularly referred to as "the father of psychoanalysis." He lived between 1856 and 1939. His work and ideas have greatly influenced psychological imaginations and popularized notions such as Freudian sleep and dream symbolism, defense mechanism, unconsciousness, and many more. These notions have greatly contributed to films, literature, and theories such as feminism, psychology, philosophy and criticism.
Freud is also known for theories such as unconscious mind, specifically those revolving around repression mechanism. He redefined sexual desire as mobile and believed that it is directed towards a wide variety of objects. His therapeutic techniques improved the understanding of transference in therapeutic relationship. The technique presumed that human beings are able to gain insight into the unconscious desires through dreams.

Freud's psychoanalysis had an objective of bringing the repressed feelings and thoughts to consciousness. Freud's successors including his daughter Anna Freud postulated that the goal of the therapy was…

OEDIPUS VS. OTHELLO
Oedipus and Othello

Oedipus and Othello are both productions where the namesake of the story or play experiences a downfall before the end of the play.

Oedipus and Othello each experience a downfall

Oedipus was a victim of the actions of the gods

Othello was responsible for his own downfall

Othello had opportunity to change his fate

Othello was deceived by Iago

Othello maims Iago

Iago never explains his motivations iii. Othello's jealousy leads him to murder Desdemona

Othello learns that he was wrong about Desdemona

Some ancillary actions played a part in each of the tragic circumstances

Oedipus' behavior is clearly outside the bounds of morality

a. Oedipus ignores the warnings of his father, Laius

Oedipus has sexual relations with his mother

c. Oedipus kills his father

d. Oedipus had free will and could have stopped himself

Thesis

Oedipus and Othello are both productions where the…

Judy Blume's Then, I Are God ? It's margaret Oedipus Rex Elektra bySophocles.
Affinities between Judy Blume's "Then Again, Maybe I on't" and "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" and Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex" and "Electra"

Judy Blume's novels "Then Again, Maybe I on't" and "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" are, to a certain degree, similar to Sophocles' tragedies "Oedipus Rex" and "Electra." It is probable that Blume inspired from the tragedies when devising the storylines for each of the novels. However, it would surely be absurd for someone to claim that her works are not unique in character. Tony, the protagonist in "Then Again, Maybe I on't," and Oedipus, the central character in "Oedipus Rex" are alike when considering that they both experience a false feeling of success only to eventually feel that they live in a lie. Similarly, Margaret and Electra are two young women who…

academic quality sources ( play film) margins 1 inch ( left) 12 point Times New Roman Arial font document sources cite APA format .
The story of Oedipus has pervaded out society and has come to provide a great deal of individuals with more information regarding thinking in Ancient Greece. Sophocles designed the story so as for audiences to gain a complex understanding of the tragic irony unfolding as the storyline progresses. The ancient Greek tragedian told the story of a young individual who becomes addicted to material values and unknowingly comes to murder his father, marry his mother, and eventually ends up being both brother and father to his children. Irony is one of the principal concepts dominating the play and it makes it possible for audiences to express little to no surprise regarding how the storyline unfolds. Oedipus' father is the person responsible for triggering a series of…

contemplated an individual's relationship with his or her environment. In Oedipus Rex and Antigone, Sophocles explores the relationship an individual has with the world and society. In each of these plays, Sophocles juxtaposes divinity and humanity and investigates the role of each within Theban society as well as looks into conflicts that arise when the laws of man conflict with divine laws. Through their narratives, Oedipus Rex and Antigone posit man is intended to serve others, including gods, and that they do not exist to be self-serving.
Oedipus Rex revolves around an eponymous anti-hero who by saving the city of Thebes from a Sphinx inadvertently and simultaneously brought forth a plague upon it. By defeating the Sphinx, Oedipus secured his place upon the Theban throne and as such was not only responsible for ensuring laws were abided, but was also responsible for protecting Thebes' citizens. Because of the plague that…

psychoanalytical critical analysis of Leslie Gore's "It's My Party." Using two tools and two coding mechanisms in your critique.
Use psychoanalytical tools and coding mechanisms in your discussion.

The lyrics of this song depict a person who is fragile, co-dependent and in great conflict Her fragile ego easily affects her emotional balance.

[It's My Party Analysis]

In a struggle to strive for a sense of self, human beings are often in conflict with their emotions and use many ways to deal with social and cultural phenomena that impact their lives. Leslie gore's "It's My Party" is a good example of a young woman struggling through a relation at a critical moment in her life, her birthday party.

The song depicts a woman of unknown age who is celebrating an important occasion in her life, only to find that the celebration is marred by the loss of her boyfriend. The song…

Shakespeare's Othello: Is it a tragedy according to Aristotle?
Aristotle and tragedy

Aristotle defines tragedy as imitation of an action that is serious and has a certain dramatic and complete magnitude. Tragedy to Aristotle is something that is:

"A form of drama exciting the emotions of pity and fear. Its action should be single and complete, presenting a reversal of fortune, involving persons renowned and of superior attainments, and it should be written in poetry embellished with every kind of artistic expression. (Poetics, Part IX)

Aristotle saw tragedy as a simulation of an event that aroused pity and fear in the individual and, by doing so, served as a form of catharsis in the individual could identify with the plot and feel a certain sort of purging or relief (VI.2).

In fact, it is this sense of purging that most distinguishes the tragedy from the comedy or epic (for instance)…

There isn't one time in the film that Martin doesn't act out of passion. Unlike Oedipus, Martin does not choose blindness but rather it is a result of his passion and desire for Mini.
atching Mini's First Time, the audience has a sort of god-like perspective as perhaps the audience felt in one of the great Greek theatres. As one watches the film, there is a definite feeling that it isn't going to end well for the humans involved. e can see the machinations growing and growing until they spin out of control and utter chaos is revealed. e are not sure what the fate of the characters will be, unlike Oedipus because we are so familiar with it, but like Oedipus, we know that there isn't much hope. In the Iliad and Odyssey, the gods do occasionally look down upon the humans with some compassion and interest -- and…

Condors eat dead squirrels but the colossal birds also consume the poisons intended only for those squirrels. The Condors talk to each other, fearing extinction, introducing naturalism. In 1985 the last 22 Condors are plucked from their tortured habitat and taken to the San Diego Zoo and other venues for captive breeding.
Fast forward to 2012. n ristotelian plot structure with mind-bending irony -- first utilizing the reversal of fortune followed by society's recognition (anagnorisis -- a sudden discovery) that takes people from ignorance to knowledge -- could be a model useful for an enterprising screenwriter delving into the Condor's fate. The reversal of fortune is the demise of the Condor due to human interventions, intended and unintended. That many informed humans have gone from ignorance to knowledge completes the second part of ristotle's plot formula.

s to the irony in proposed ristotelian plot, take Oedipus Rex, for example. In…