psychology and mythologie

[Tar-Herunole]

Ok, without using google or any engine... tell me what are those psychological terms and what's the legend they borrow the name from:

Odipus complex

Elektra complex

Narcisism

Hermaphrodite

And to end up, now that is Valentine, who is the angel with the bow that you see always, and what's his origin?

[Megafrost]

Post your answers to win a token.

[Tar-Herunole]

One by one:

OEDIPUS COMPLEX: For Freud, the childhood desire to sleep with the mother and to kill the father. Freud describes the source of this complex in his Introductory Lectures (Twenty-First Lecture): "You all know the Greek legend of King Oedipus, who was destined by fate to kill his father and take his mother to wife, who did everything possible to escape the oracle's decree and punished himself by blinding when he learned that he had none the less unwittingly committed both these crimes" (16.330). According to Freud, Sophocles' play, Oedipus Rex, illustrates a formative stage in each individual's psychosexual development, when the young child transfers his love object from the breast (the oral phase) to the mother. At this time, the child desires the mother and resents (even secretly desires the murder) of the father. Such primal desires are, of course, quickly repressed but, even among the mentally sane, they will arise again in dreams or in literature. Resolution of the Oedipus complex is believed to occur by identification with the parent of the same sex and by the renunciation of sexual interest in the parent of the opposite sex. Freud considered this complex the cornerstone of the superego and the nucleus of all human relationships. Among those individuals who do not progress properly into the genital phase, the Oedipus Complex, according to Freud, can still be playing out its psychdrama in various displaced, abnormal, and/or exaggerated ways. Many psychiatrists, while acknowledging the significance of the Oedipal relationships to personality development in our culture, ascribe love and attraction toward one parent and hatred and antagonism toward the other not necessarily to sexual rivalry but to resentment of parental authoritarian power.

[Tar-Herunole]

The Myth: Oedipus was son of the King of Thebes. The Oracle said the son will kill his father, so the King asked a sheperd to kill the son. The sheperd took pity and brought it instead to the nearby city of Corynth. There, the King, who could not have children adopted him. When he grew up an Oracle said he will kill his father and sleep with his mother, so to avoid that he exiled himself from Corynth (because he did not know he was not a natural son). On the way he met his natural father and they quarreled and he killed him, the King of Thebes. Then he arrived to Thebes not knowing he had killed the King. He saved the city from the Sphinxs, so they made him King and he married the Queen (his real mother). Later everything become known so they all killed themselves (or almost)

[Tar-Herunole]

ELEKTRA COMPLEX:

In the female, the "Elektra Complex" is alleged to occur when she notices that her father has an organ which she doesn't have. She feels castrated and experiences what is known as "penis envy". She then loves her father and is jealous of her mother.

Basically is the equivalent of Oedipus for a girl. It's what would be understood when the father wants to protect and do everything for her pretty daughter, and the mother is more severe... and that causes some psychological problem later to the girl...Well, actually I think Freus had some good insights but was mainly crazy.

THE MYTH

The aftermath of the Trojan War held many tragedies in stall for the Greek heroes returning to their homeland. Next to the travels of Odysseus, it is the fate of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and his family that is the most dramatic. Having sacrificed his daughter Iphigeneia in order to secure good winds for the journey to Troy, Agamemnon is killed upon his return from Troy by his revengeful wife Klytaimnestra and her lover Aigisthos. Their daughter Elektra succeeds in sending her brother Orestes to a safe place, but she herself and her sister Chrysothemis stay in the house to endure much suffering at the hands of their mother and her lover. The Greek playwrights Aischylos, Sophokles and Euripides all treated the myth in tragedies, reporting of the return by grown-up Orestes with cousin Pylades to his home town, first in disguise pretending to bring the news of his own death - thus causing a complete breakdown of his sister - before revealing himself as her long-lost brother and, edged on by an ever-resentful Elektra, exerting divine revenge by killing Klytaimnestra and Aigisthos. Pursued by the Furies, demons of revenge, Orestes flees to Delphi to seek atonement for his matricide, and through the intervention of Athena is finally granted peace.

In fewer words, Elektra with her brother and sis killed her mother in revenge for killing her father, Agamenon, King of Mycenae and Supreme Commander of the Greeks in Troy.

[Tar-Herunole]

NARCISSISM

narcissism[nArsis´izum] Pronunciation Key, Freudian term, drawn from the Greek myth of Narcissus, indicating an exclusive self-absorption. A degree of narcissism is considered normal, where an individual has a healthy self-regard and realistic aspirations. The condition becomes pathological, and diagnosable as a personality disorder, when it significantly impairs social functioning. An individual with narcissistic personality disorder tends to harbor an exaggerated sense of his own self-importance and uniqueness. He is often excessively occupied with fantasies about his own attributes and potential for success, and usually depends upon others for reinforcement of his self-image. A narcissist tends to have difficulties maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships, stemming largely from a lack of empathy and a propensity for taking advantage of others in the interest of self-aggrandizement.

Basically, is the kind of people who are big-headed and worring about the way they look, and using people to say how great they are and so and so

THE MYTH

Narcissus -- in Greek mythology, the son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Leiriope; he was distinguished for his beauty. His mother was told that he would have a long life, provided he never looked upon his own features. His rejection, however, of the love of the nymph Echo or of his lover Ameinias drew upon him the vengeance of the gods. He fell in love with his own reflection in the waters of a spring and pined away (or killed himself); the flower that bears his name sprang up where he died. According to another source, Narcissus, to console himself for the death of his beloved twin sister, his exact counterpart, sat gazing into the spring to recall her features.

[Tar-Herunole]

Hermaphrodites are those beings who have both sexual organs of male and female (such many plants!)

Myth:

Origins of Hermaphrodite




HERMAPHRODITUS AND SALMACIS

Hermaphroditus was brought up in a mountain-cave by nymphs, and when he was fifteen he left home to wander unknown lands. When he came to Halicarnassus, on the coast of Asia Minor, he discovered a lovely clear pool of water surrounded by fresh green grass. A nymph, Salmacis, inhabited the pool. She refused to hunt in the woods and follow the pursuits of Artemis, but instead remained at her pool, often languishing seductively on its verdant banks.

Once when she was picking flowers nearby, she caught sight of the divinely beautiful Hermaphroditus and was smitten with an irresistible desire to have him. She carefully made herself as attractive as possible before she addressed him with a fervent declaration of love that she insisted must be consummated.

The boy blushed because he did not know what love was, and when she touched his lovely neck and demanded at least the kisses of a sister, he threatened to leave. Salmacis, afraid to lose him, said that she would give him free access to the place and pretended to leave him all alone. Instead she hid behind a nearby grove of bushes to watch. Hermaphroditus, captivated by the pool, threw off his clothes, and Salamacis was overwhelmed by the sight of his naked body. He dove into the water, and Salmacis, inflamed by passion, quickly dove in after him. She grabbed hold of him and held him, enveloping him with kisses as he struggled to be free. Salmacis clung to Hermaphroditus with her whole body, and it was as though they were one. The gods granted her prayer that they never be separated. Their two bodies were joined together, and they no longer were boy or girl but partook of both sexes.

[Megafrost]

*awards Tar-Herunole with token and ice cubes*