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  • Re: Literal Oedipus complex revisited

    From Don@3:633/10 to All on Wednesday, June 17, 2026 16:31:54
    <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:

    <snip>

    In the Sopocles play, Oedipus has no desire to kill his father; in fact he's fleeing the area where he thinks his bio parents live to avoid that fate, when
    he *does* kill Laius (who he does not know is his father) in the first recorded incident of road rage.

    Nor does he know that Jocasta is his mother when he marries her, as a
    prize for getting rid of the Sphinx.

    Oedipus doesn't have any of the motivations described in Freud's 'Oedipus Complex'.

    Motives tripped me up earlier. Motives are mostly moot because Freud
    uses the Athenian tragedy by Sophocles as a metaphor for repressed
    incestuous impulses.
    The key Freudian insight is that when Odipus and Jocasta initially
    engage in an incestuous mother-son relationship they are ignorant of
    their biological connection. Because it's been repressed by both, at
    least initially.

    --
    Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. veritas _|_ telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. liberabit |
    tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' vos |



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