The Oedipus Complex

It's surprising that reading a book on classical mythology could somehow link me to psychosexual.

According to myth, there was a prophecy that Oedipus would end up killing his father. Upon his birth, his parents abandoned him to starve to death.

But Oedipus got rescued, made the prophecy real - he killed his own father and married his own mother.


Oedipus complex refers to a child's desire to sexually possess the parent of the opposite sex. Funny though the name was so familiar as I took psychology back when I was in University.

Learning the complex was one thing. Learning how it was coined does indeed keeps the lesson in your head, I think.