The Oedipal complex is a term used by Sigmund Freud in his theory of psychosexual stages of development to describe a boy's feelings of desire for his mother and jealousy and anger towards his father.
Essentially, a boy feels like he is in competition with his father for possession of his mother. He views his father as a rival for her attentions and affections.
In order to develop into a successful adult with a healthy identity, the child must identify with the same-sex parent in order to resolve the conflict.
Freud suggested that while the primal identity wants to eliminate the father, the more realistic ego knows that the father is much stronger. According to Freud, the boy then experiences what he called castration anxiety - a fear of both literal and figurative emasculation.
Freud believed that as the child becomes aware of the physical differences between males and females, he assumes that the female's penis has been removed and that his father will also castrate him as a punishment for desiring his mother.
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