title: Demythologizing oedipus.
abstract: The oedipus complex is a basic psychoanalytic concept, which is only historically tied to its eponymic myth. It works in our system and in our method as a hermeneutic principle, organizing our understanding of the discourse of patients. Its validity depends on the situation of childhood development within the family, with its attendant passions and desires.
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D005619:Freudian Theory; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009229:Mythology; D009813:Oedipus Complex; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory