Abstract

HALBERSTADT-FREUD, Hendrika. Electra versus Oedipus. Psyche (Sao Paulo) [online]. 2006, vol.10, n.17, pp. 31-54. ISSN 1415-1138.

The author suggests the myth of Electra as a paradigm for feminine development, because she considers that Electra, as a metaphor, is more applicable to the vicissitudes of feminine development than the Oedipus complex. Electra, who was marked, since her birth, by several aspects of ambivalence in relation to her mother, reflects women’s destiny. The author considers that pathological forms of ambivalent attachment to the mother are vehement rejection, as with Electra, or the opposite, a close symbiotic bond. She concludes that girls do not change radically their primary object, but rather add to the homosexual component, the heterosexual model.

Keywords : Electra complex; Female development; Ambivalence; Maternal attachment; Transgenerational transmission.

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