The Oedipus Complex By Noah Fischer

Where do you even begin with this one?

Presented by Sigmund Freud, the Oedipus Complex theorized that all children go through a stage in their early childhood where they develop an attraction to their parent of the opposite sex and feel jealous toward the other for taking them away. This was named after Oedipus the King, who killed his father and married and had kids with his mother (the name seems slightly rude considering when he found out what he did, he was so disgusted he gouged his eyes out). As any normal person would, my first reaction to this was: that's disgusting, how could anyone ever think this up, and that still holds true, but Freud also theorized that memory of this was long repressed and forgotten by the time you would be able to look back on it. 

Now comes the question; is there any truth to this theory? Luckily this has been widely disproven, and many flaws in Freud's theory have been pointed out. In 1924 and 1943 studies (I know, outdated and times have changed but it was all I could find) girls were found to be jealous of the superior male status, rather than the relationship between the other parent. Another 1929 study found that father-son relationships tended to be good even when the father was seen as the mother's lover. Freud also only studied one child when trying to prove this, and the study was extremely biased, the child's father (who was conducting the research) was a big believer in Freud's work. A 2000 study also provides support that what seems to be attraction, could just be an attachment complex.

It's actually quite disturbing to think that you were ever attracted to your parents, which is why I think this not be as researched as it could be. It's just an awkward topic, so I'm glad that this has pretty much been disproven.