Electra Complex: what is it and what are its effects?

It was Carl Gustav Jung who stated one of the best-known theories about the psychosexual development of girls: the Electra complex. The Swiss psychologist was inspired by the history and symbology of the Greek myth of Electra.

Electra was the daughter of the king of Mycenae. She hatched a fine plan, together with her brother Orestes, to avenge her father’s death.thus killing his own mother and also her lover.

It is curious to know, first of all, the etymological meaning of this name. Electra means “amber” and “spark” at the same time, due to the static electricity that was achieved with this type of fossil resin.

There were many modern authors who saw in that character and his name something as complex as it was striking. A character who would inspire, for example, such well-known novels as “The morning becomes Electra”by Eugene O’Neilwhere they talked about the darkness and psychological recesses inside any family in the 1930s.

Jung’s theory

It was Carlo Gustav Jung who was the first to make use of this mythological figure. Electra would serve in 1912 to express this early fixation on the part of girls towards their fathers..

It was, at the same time, the counterpart to the Oedipus complex, developed by Sigmund Freud at the time and which was extracted from the myth of Oedipus by Sophocles, within classical Greek mythology. For this complex, the famous father of psychoanalysis held the idea that every child went through a stage of desire for the mother, perceiving the father as a rival.

This type of emotional attraction (unusual for all of us) For psychoanalysis, it is part of the normal psychological development of any child between 3 and 6 years old.. After this age, this fixation or preference dissolves by itself naturally. Let’s see it in detail in this article.

How does the Electra complex start?

To understand this complex and its formulation, one must place oneself in the appropriate context. We are within the focus of psychoanalysis, and one aspect to which Sigmund Freud dedicated much of his work was psychosexual development and how said sexuality is managed in the early stages of life. It was one of the great revolutions in Freudian thought, since until then psychology had not considered that children could have sexuality.

The way we do it and give vent to those sexual impulses during early childhood will determine a fuller maturity and a more comprehensive, more balanced, as well as “healthy” psycho-affective development. However, If we maintain certain fixations we can give way to mental disorders and certain neuroses or problems that Freud himself did not hesitate to label as “aberrant”.

Carl Gustav Jung, for his part, always maintained certain disagreements on these issues.. Something that Jung perceived, first of all, is that Freud’s theory had a serious “theoretical gap.” The Oedipus complex focused only on men and on that intense physical and emotional bond between children and their mothers during the first 6 years of life.

He did not hesitate, therefore, to develop his theory of the Electra complex in 1912 to fill this gap. to contribute that perspective to the field of female development and not leave it forgotten.

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Features of the Electra complex

The Electra complex would go through a series of phases. We explain very briefly what each of them consists of and how it manifests itself.

A first stage of attraction to the mother

Carl Gustav Jung was certain that the emotional bond between a daughter and her mother was much more intense than that between a child and his mother. during the first 3 years of life. This initial attachment will later mark “the return” and the need for the girl to identify with her mother to incorporate some of the maternal characteristics into her personality and even to internalize her morality in the “super ego.” ”.

Predilection for the father

When she reaches 3 or 4 years old, the girl stops having that predilection for her mother. to begin to show certain behavior of fixation and/or infatuation with dad.

The Electra complex has its course starting point at the moment when girls discover that they do not have a penis and, in turn, they feel the desire to obtain what this sexual organ symbolizes. Psychoanalysts also affirm that this approach to the maternal figure generates a certain rivalry and distance from the mother.They may develop jealousy and display behaviors ranging from possessive affection towards the father to a certain hostility if at a given moment the girl does not get what she wants from the father figure.

The natural resolution of the Electra complex

At 6 or 7 years old, the girl again feels the need for closeness and identification with her mother.. It is then when they begin to show behaviors of imitation and curiosity towards that feminine world where the little girl begins to establish her gender role.

Jung emphasized with his theory that this entire phase is part of the normal development of the girl, there where the first foundations of their emotional, social and psychological behavior are laid, which will continue to mature in subsequent years.

What is true in the Electra complex theory?

There are many girls who experience “daddy” or feel a preference for their father at a certain time in their lives, it is true. However, it should be noted that Modern psychology sees these oedipal and electrum theories as very rusty approaches.like the classic psychosexual stages marked by an oral phase, an anal phase and a phallic phase.

In fact, There are well-known psychoanalysts who do not share this vision and theory, like the German Karen Horney, who already said at the time that approaches such as girls going through a stage where they envied their parents’ penises were little more than an offense to women.

Now, if at any time a girl shows such common behaviors as seeking dad’s affection before mom’s, choosing to spend most of her time with him, or saying things out loud like “she wants to marry dad,” We must also understand that There is nothing bad or pathological in this type of behavior..

After all, the father is his closest male figure and his reference in some way in certain aspects, and This type of fantasy, games and behaviors will disappear naturally. as socialization with peers becomes more important.

In fact and to conclude, Nor did psychologist Carlo Gustav Jung himself give this a completely biological or universal value.. It is just a behavior that can arise in some girls and that usually resolves in a short time.

Bibliographic references:

-Freud, S. “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality” Basic Books: New York

-Jayme, María and Victoria Sau (1996) Differential psychology of sex and gender: foundations, pp. 109, 110. Icaria Editorial

-Jung, CG: Complete works, Madrid: Editorial Trotta, 1999/2016.

-Scott, J. (2005). Electra after Freud: Myth and culture. Cornell Studies in the History of Psychiatry. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

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