Oedipal Support and Critique
Recap
• Who is Oedipus?
• What analogy does Freud make from this?
• How does he link it to religion?
Support for Freud’s Theory of Religion
• Freud’s theory can only be accepted if these
two things (at least) are established:
1. That the Oedipus Complex is a universal trauma
2. That buried trauma can appear in the form of religion
What Happened
• Freud’s argument caused an uproar when they
became known
• To some they were deeply offensive; to others
merely bizarre
• However as the father of psychoanalysis Freud was a
respected figure in various branches of psychology
and his considerable work with patients claimed to
provide support for his theories
Anthropological Support for the
Oedipus Complex
• Freud used the work of Charles Darwin to
speculate that in primitive societies the social
unit was the ‘primal horde’
• Hordes were groups of people arranged
around a single dominant male who had total
authority over the group and held claim over
all the females
Totem and Taboo
• In Freud's book ‘Totem and Taboo’ he uses the primal horde as an
explanation of religious belief
• In the beginning there is a male leader.
• This leader is seen as a father figure for the other members of the tribe.
• This primal father was a violent and despotic ruler who reserved all the
women for himself
• The father served as both someone to love and fear.
• There was a feeling of ambivalence towards the primal father from the
younger men in the tribe as on the one hand, the sons feared and hated
the man who thwarted their “sexual demands” and pursuit of power. On
the other hand, they loved and admired him, “longed” for him and looked
up to him’
• This ambivalence, the coinciding of love and hate, tenderness and
hostility, is seen to be the essence of the father son relationship.
• Eventually the hostility side of the relationship took over and the young
men in the tribe formed a bond, overwhelmed him and killed and ate him
to incorporate his strength, wisdom and other characteristics
• Freud explains that the sons’ fear and hatred of the primal father led them
to murder him. Their love and admiration led them to the literal
incorporation of his flesh into their flesh
• Guilt arises from this act as tender feelings towards the father, suppressed
at the time of the murder begin to mount and turn into remorse and guilt.
This guilt results in the arising of totemism
• The sons installed a totem animal which was thought of both as the clan’s
ancestor and as its guardian and protector
• This totem animal eventually became a God and both the totem animal
and the God symbolise the father
• Freud explains that the tribe solved the problem
of guilt through the fact that the clansmen are
under a sacred obligation (subject to automatic
sanctions) not to kill or destroy their totem and
to avoid eating its flesh (or deriving benefit from
it in other ways along with the taboo against
having sexual relations with the women of their
own tribe. Thus renouncing one and all the ideal
of the father’s absolute dominance
• The memory of these events was inherited by
later generations, and was commemorated in the
regular ritual killing and eating of the totem
animal
How This Links To Religion
• Freud relates this to modern day religion by saying that it lives on in
guilt and fear of God and avoidance of sex, in the Christian Eucharist
(eating of God), and in atonement, leading to reconciliation with the
father
• The murdered primal father is said to constitute the original image
upon which later religions and generations modelled their concept of
God.
• This idea of totem, taboo and the primal horde also relates to original
sin, according to Freud: The son’s killing of the father with its attendant
sense of guilt is the original sin. Totemistic religion then formed as the
sons attempted to soften their guilt and reconcile with the father
through subsequent obedience. In Freud’s opinion all later religions are
‘attempts to solve the very same problems. They are all reactions
aiming at one and the same event that is at the origin of culture and
that has been driving humanity ever since
How Does This Support The Oedipus
Complex
• This shows that the Oedipus Complex is not simply a
personal trauma, but one that has affected all societies
at a historical level
• It helps to explain why religion is universal as a
collective neurosis and why the concept of God is such
a powerful one: because it stems also from a historical
experience that still affects us
• Freud believed in some kind of psychological
mechanism whereby guilt for the original crime is
passed on genetically
What Do You Think?
• Does the idea of the primal horde and totem
and taboo successfully support the Oedipus
Complex? Why/Why not?
Problems – Anthropological Evidence for
the Primal Horde
• The whole theory of the horde was based on Darwin’s
mere speculations
• It is not accepted that people were grouped exclusively
in hordes – it is likely that there was much greater
variety
• Not all societies had totem objects whom they
worshipped and there is no evidence for an ambivalent
attitude towards the totems which is demonstrated by
the totem meal (the British anthropologist E.E. EvansPritchard doubts that this ever happened
• The idea that guilt is handed down from
generation to generation has likewise been
discredited
Psychological Attacks on the Oedipus
Complex
• The major critic of Freud’s theory of the
Oedipus Complex is Bronislaw Malinowski in
his book ‘Sex and Repression’
• Freud needed the complex to be universal for
it to be the cause of religion, and needed it to
be caused by our natures for it to precede
religion and be the cause of it
Malinowski’s Attack
• Malinowski attacked both these points:
• Malinowski argued instead that the complex is caused by the strict
rules of religion – rather than it being a cause of them
1.
2.
First he pointed to the Trobriand race, where the role of the father is
more that of a weak nurse. In this race there is no evidence of the
complex
Second, looking at the animal world he found nothing inherent in
the nature of animals that could cause such a complex. The role of
both father and mother is one of support
• This attack on the Oedipus Complex leads to the conclusion that
sexual guilt is not in fact the cause of religion
• As a result, Freud’s attack on religion does not contain the force it
was once believed to have
What Do You Think?
• Do you think these arguments have disproved
the Oedipus Complex?
• Can you think of any counter arguments?