Fathers and Sons: Freud's Discovery of the Oedipus Complex

Freud's path to the Oedipus complex reveals conceptual inconsistencies. These uncertainties concern fathers, brothers and sons, and the place of the oedipal triad within the family romance. Freud's uncovering of the Oedipus complex emerged, in large part, from his self-analyis of his childhood years in Freiberg. Freud's father was 20 years older than his third wife, and had two adult sons, all of whom lived in Freiberg. In 1897, when Freud announces the Oedipus complex, he stresses his love of his mother and jealousy of his father. Yet in 1924 Freud wrote that his adult brother, Philipp, had taken his father's place as the child's rival. The oedipal complex alters if there are four players rather than three. Freud's concept of an oedipal triangle does not adequately explain the psychological dynamics of his childhood. Fuller conceptual clarity would occur if the dynamics of the Oedipus complex were placed within the family context in which it unfolds.