Preferring one parent over another

The Electra Complex

Soon after the libidinal shift to the penis, the child develops her first sexual impulses towards her mother.
The girl realizes that she is not physically equipped to have a heterosexual relationship with her mother, since she does not have a penis.
She desires a penis, and the power that it represents. This is described as penis envy. She sees the solution as obtaining her father's penis.
She develops a sexual desire for her father.
The girl blames her mother for her apparent castration (what she sees as punishment by the mother for being attracted to the father) assisting a shift in the focus of her sexual impulses from her mother to her father.
Sexual desire for her father leads to the desire to replace and eliminate her mother.
The girl identifies with her mother so that she might learn to mimic her, and thus replace her.
The child anticipates that both aforementioned desires will incur punishment (by the principle of lex talionis)
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TBH Freud was quite the quack.
 
abzo said:
The Electra Complex



TBH Freud was quite the quack.
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His theories hold true .... and you only understand that if you go really deeply into human behaviour and the human psyche. We as humans often do things for which the explanation can be found in some of these theories.
 
blunomore said:
His theories hold true .... and you only understand that if you go really deeply into human behaviour and the human psyche. We as humans often do things for which the explanation can be found in some of these theories.
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Yes, a lot of his theories do hold true but even more of his theories have been consigned to the BS files.
 
Freud? Aiiii spare me. I read The Interpretation of Dreams as a student; what a load of hogwash. He is important insofar as he fathered the entire psychological, psychotherapeutic movement, but the concrete specifics of his theories don't hold up very well.
 
cerebus said:
Freud? Aiiii spare me. I read The Interpretation of Dreams as a student; what a load of hogwash. He is important insofar as he fathered the entire psychological, psychotherapeutic movement, but the concrete specifics of his theories don't hold up very well.
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His theories of psychosexual development is brilliant and explains a lot i.t.o. behaviour.
 
blunomore said:
My daughter, 14 months old, changes her preference for either me or her father on a regular basis. Last night she only wanted to be with me the entire evening. She often prefers her father when she wants to have more fun, because I guess he is more entertaining than me who is feeding, changing, giving her a bath, etc.

When she sees her dad open the door when he comes back from work every day she practically jumps out of my lap to run to him! In her eyes dad means fun.

When she gets hurt or is upset, she often shows a preference for me, though.

Do your kids have such a preference? Does it even out at some stage or does this continue until they are much older?
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This is not unusual at all. It works like that in most families. It will probably always be like that. It's good that way. A child needs both.

I watched a documentary some time, which you'd probably find interesting. I think it's this one: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/biology-of-dads/ but not sure. Youtube is blocked at work so can't check.
 
With my son's mom and I not together, he always misses me and I don't have to be the disciplinarian hence I'm the favourite :)
 
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