Sigmund Freud’s 19th century essay, The Interpretation of Dreams, reveals ideas that were the basis of knowledge for society during that time, and are similarly seen in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex. Freud’s essay touches on psychoneurotic humans and how they are destined to fail from the young stages in life due to the people and environments they are surrounded by. It was clear to Freud that the main reason these people suffer from mental illness is because of improper parenting; however, he started to study the minds of the patients as well. From this, Freud developed his theory the Oedipus Complex, which says that every child, boy or girl, has the desire to have sexual relations with his or her parent of the opposite sex, and kill the other. Coincidentally, Oedipus Rex is both the murderer of his father, and the husband of his mother. Oedipus was never given an opportunity to change his life as the oracle foretold the predetermined story of his life to King Laius, his father. Both the patients of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and Oedipus Rex himself were left to lead lives that were determined tragic before they could even walk.
In Sigmund Freud’s essay, The Interpretation of Dreams, the idea of predetermined fate is explored. He explains how he hypothesizes that psychoneurotic patients are affected by their family relationships “through their amorous or hostile attitude toward their parents” (Freud). When Freud looked further into this psychological defect, he came up with his theory, the Oedipus Complex. His theory relates back to the story of Oedipus Rex, in which Oedipus’s father, King Laius, was warned by the oracle that his son would marry his mother and kill his father, so he decided to abandon his son to die. This story is only “legendary matter which corroborates this belief,” but it provides “profound and universal validity” for Oedipus’ hypothesis (Freud). Within Freud’s hypothesis and the legend of Oedipus Rex there is common theme of predetermined...