Theory of the Oedipus complex
Relying on material from his self-analysis and on anthropological
studies of totemism, Freud developed the Oedipus complex as an
explanation of the formation of the ego, the super-ego and the id.
The traditional paradigm in a (male) child’s psychological
coming-into-being is to first select the mother as the object of
libidinal investment. This however is expected to arouse the
father's anger, and the infant surmises that the most probable form
of expression of this is castration.
The infant internalizes the rules pronounced by his father. This is
how the super-ego comes into being. The father now becomes the
figure of identification as the child wants to have his phallus,
but resigns from his attempts to take the mother, shifting his
libidinal attention to new objects of desire.
