the electra complex

• The Electra complex

  •All young girls experience this conflict

  They develop a passionate desire to have sex with their father

  • They resent their mother as realise they do not have a penis, and they

  blame their mother for giving birth to them without one
• • Girls experience penis envy as they are jealous that their father/brother has a penis and they themselves do not

  •They discover that they cannot have a penis, so substitute this desire for wanting to have a baby/son, who will have the penis they as mother never had
• They want their father to provide them with a son, so lust after their father However, they feels anxious that their mother will find out about these feelings
• • In summary, conflict between lust for father, and dual hatred for mother yet fear of losing mother's love.