Electra+Complex

= = =__ELECTRA COMPLEX __ = Miley Cyrus and her father, Billy Ray Cyrus

 **ORIGINS **  The term “Electra Complex” was coined in 1913 by famed psychologist Carl Jung (Scott, 2005). The name for the complex came from Greek Mythology’s Electra, who was famed for planning the murder of her mother and stepfather in an act of vengeance after they killed her father. Generally speaking, it is used in reference of the condition in which a daughter, while in the phallic stage of her psychosexual development, competes with the mother for the affection of the father. In short, it is the daughter’s desire to sexually possess her father (Jung, 1915). It was created, in part, as an antagonist to Sigmund Freud’s Oedipus Complex, in which the son competes with the father for the affection of the mother. Freud, the preeminent psychological mind of the time, rejected the name “Electra Complex” because it would emphasize too much of its simil arity to the Oedipus Complex (Freud, 1962). However, Jung’s label stuck and is the term we know it by today. **MANIFESTATION, COURSE, AND RESOLUTION **   During the phallic stage of psychosexual development (usually 3-6 years old), girls become conscious of their bodies, as well as those of others. According to Freud, girls, realizing that they have no penis, develop Penis Envy for the power that the penis provides. Seeing that their fathers have one but their mothers do not, girls turn their sexual attentions away from the mother and towards the father, competing with the mother for his affection. However, girls generally refrain from outwardly showing their competition with their mothers for fear of losing that. Also, they soon realize that acting upon these desires would lead to severe consequences, and will try to find a way to move on. Generally, girls utilize their defense mechanisms, such as displacement or identification, to get past these feelings, but this is not always the case. Displacement is used to move their object of attention from the father to men in general. Identification is used to establish a relationship with the mother in realizing that neither of them have a penis and therefore should not be antagonists. If they fail to move on, girls are thought to be “fixated” in the phallic stage of psychosexual development, which has been theorized to contribute to neurosis, pedophilia, homosexuality, the choosing of a sexual partner that closely resembles the father, and a strained relationship with the mother (Freud, 1962). It is also believed that an inability to resolve these issues could result in a woman who sets out to dominate men, with their actions dependant on their self-esteem levels. Those with high self-esteem will assume unusually seductive roles, while those with lower self-esteem become overly submissive to men (Bullock, 1999).

 According to the theory, girls learn at a young age ( usually 3-6 years old, in accordance with the phallic stage of psychosexual development) that pursuing a sexual relationship with one’s father would result in dire consequences. Therefore, they will often times utilize the defence mechanism of repression to push those inappropriate thoughts into the subconscious. However, if nothing else is done to help rectify the situation and resolve the Electra Complex, then the thoughts will remain in the subconscious, wreaking aforementioned havoc from below the surface of the mind.  This relates to sexual communication in different ways. As children in the phallic stage, girls will choose to disclose neither their sexual desire for their father nor their competition with their mother for their father’s affection, due to the punishment that would most likely be incurred if such disclosure were to happen. They keep quiet and repress their thoughts into the subconscious, where, if they are allowed to go unchecked, will continue to affect someone well into adulthood. It is unknown whether disclosure to a parent or parents would better, worsen, or affect the progression of the complex at all. If a woman reaches adulthood with an unresolved Electra Complex, she will be affected in many ways, as described above. According to the theory, an unresolved Electra Complex h as a great deal of influence on the type of mate or sexual partner a woman selects and the way she interacts with him. Those with this unresolved issue attempt to dominate over men, either through aggression through seductiveness, or extreme submissiveness. This effect will have a large influence on intra-couple relations, as the woman attempts to assert her control over the man.   The Electra Complex has surfaced many times throughout history, although not always with that tag. In the ancient Greek Mythological text //Electra// , by Sophocles, Electra carries out a plan with her brother Orestes to kill her mother Clytemnestra and stepfather, who had recently killed Electra’s father, Agamemnon, upon his arrival home from the Battle of Troy. Clytemnestra was cast as an evil character that would not wait for her husband’s return from war in accordance to her duty as his wife. Electra and Orestes were the heroes of this tale, fighting in honor of their fallen father (Bell, 1991). In more recent times, many fairy tales, including the story of Cinderella, have also shown this complex. Often times when a hero and heroine are involved, an evil stepmother character will be envious of them and try to undermine them. Interestingly, tests have shown that girls between the ages of 3 and 6 (during Freud’s phallic stage of psychosexual development) associate very strongly with the “Prince Charming” character and his ability to satiate a girl’s Penis Envy (Berger, 2005).
 * THE ELECTRA COMPLEX AND SEXUAL COMMUNICATION **
 * THE ELECTRA COMPLEX IN MEDIA AND POPULAR CULTURE **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bell, R. E. (1991). <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">//Women of classical mythology: A biographical dictionary.// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> California: Oxford University Press. Berger, A. A. (2005). <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">//Media analysis techniques// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage Press. Bullock, A., Trombley, S. (1999). <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">//The New Fontana dictionary of modern thought.// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> London: Harper Collins. Freud, S. (1962). <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">//Three essays of the theory of sexuality.// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> New York: Avon Books Jung, C. (1915). <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">//The theory of psychoanalysis// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. New York: Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing Co. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">S <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">cott, J. (2005). <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">//Electra after Freud: myth and culture. Cornell studies in the history of psychiatry// <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">REFERENCES **