The Oedipus complex is probably Sigmund Freud’s most famous theory – that every little boy or girl goes through a phase where they want to kill one parent and, well, do things with the other. Good thing Freud just made it up.
This episode takes a deep dive into Sigmund Freud's most famous—and most controversial—theory: the Oedipus Complex. Josh and Chuck explore how Freud observed real patterns in child behavior but then interpreted them through a wildly speculative lens, theorizing that young children develop unconscious desires for their opposite-sex parent and rivalry with their same-sex parent, basing much of this on a single case study of a four-year-old boy named Little Hans. The guys examine why this theory became so influential despite being pretty much discredited by modern psychology, and they discuss what more contemporary research has actually revealed about how kids develop relationships and attachments—spoiler alert: it's way less creepy than Freud's version.
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