The Oedipus Complex - Sigmund Freud vs. Jacques Lacan Essay

The Oedipus Complex - Sigmund Freud vs. Jacques Lacan The story of Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus has been interpreted by innumerable writers, philosophers, and critics in countless ways; the methods of interpreting Oedipus vary from mad rages and blind accusations to ignorantly perverse acts ranging from basic sexual desire to pre-destined fate ordained by the gods. Perhaps the most famous psychoanalyst in history Sigmund Freud theorized that Oedipus story was applicable to all. French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan translated Freud into French and, though Lacan claimed to agree completely with Freuds ideas, he substantially changed Freuds theories. As Jurgen Braungardt says, Lacan performs a renovation: he replaces the foundation†¦show more content†¦Thus, the desire for the mother is repressed and becomes subconscious. It is at this point that the development of what Freud identified as the super-ego, synonymous with the conscience, occurs. According to Freud, the super-ego is the unconscious component of the mind that stores all o f societys expectations, moral values, etc., suppressing the base desires of the id (the unconscious place in the mind that houses all our base, instinctive desires) and ego (the part of the mind where all conscious thought occurs). Because the ego and super-ego are unconscious, they are more powerful than if they were conscious; we have no realization of what is happening in them, and therefore cannot control or even recognize, what happens in those corners of the mind. This creates a conflict between the ego, id, and super-ego. Davis explains it like this: [L]ife for the ego is miserable: caught always between the conflicting and totally irreconcilable demands of, on the one hand, the id, and, on the other, the super-ego: what the ego obscurely feels it wants, its id-derived desires, it cant have, nor can it even admit that it wants them; what it feels it must do, the fierce imperatives of the superego, it cant, nor can it even admit these imperatives into awareness. (Davis) There are two main discrepancies within Freuds theory: First, everything is about sex. Many have trouble accepting that all human desires areShow MoreRelatedCleanth Brookss Essay Irony as a Principle of Structure9125 Words   |  37 PagesMarx’s own. The problem with Marx is precisely to take his method and his system as we find them and to demonstrate that they form a coherent unity that must be preserved. The opposite is true of Hegel. The task he imposes is to separate out from the complex web of ideas with its sometimes glaring contradictions all the seminal elements of his thought and rescue them as a vital intellectual force for the present. He is a more profitable and potent thinker than many people imagine. And as I see it, the