FREUD’S OEDIPUS COMPLEX and LACAN’S MIRROR STAGE
This study attepts to analyse the similarities between Freud’s Oedipus Complex and Lacan’s Mirror Stage. Freud’s theory Oedipus Complex takes its name from the myth of Oedipus, a Greek hero who kills his father without knowing that he is his father and marries his mother. Lacan’s Mirror Stage basically refers to one’s seeing his or her external image, the reflection of the body on the mirror and recognizing the reality. I will briefly try to analyse these theories.
According to Freud, Oedipus Complex is a passage that all male children go through in their childhood. Freud divided this passage into three stages. In the first stage, the child sees his mother as a part of himself but when he becomes to the second stage, the child becomes jealous of his father even hate him, pretends to take his place and be the mother’s sexual object. In the last stage of this passage, the child gradually learns to quit his desires to his mother with the fear of his father because he tells that if he continues behaving like that, he will be castrated. The father seperates the mother from the child. Because of this treatment the child starts to pay attention to other opposite sex around so that the father prevents incest. It is obvious that for Freud, the father symbolizes authority and the child symbolizes sexual desires. If both the parents and the child can overcome this problem, the child becomes a healthy social being. If the parents, especially the father threatens the child with severe punishment, it can cause the child become mentally ill when he is an adult.
In my opinion, a child’s desires are not fulfilled properly but he is punished, he will have seriorus mental problems. I think parents should be like friends with their children and try to find a solution to problems like this together. If they treat the child conversely, the child’s desires will be repressed and this will cause mental illness.
Hamlet is a good...