The concept of psychoanalysis is one that seems most applicable and accessible to many people. The Freudian ideas and concepts are immensely well known and are popularized as a basic fundamental concept for psychology students. One major aspect of the Freudian ideas is that a child sexually desires a mate that reminds them of the opposite sex parent, i.e. a son will desire a woman who is similar to his mother and a daughter will desire a man reminiscent of her father. This is essentially based on the story of Oedipus Rex.
The question is, however, how applicable is this? While it is understandable for children to naturally look up to their parents and find them admirable, do those traits always cross over into their dating life? Hollywood likes to rake in in the idea, cashing in on cheesy movies like Sweet Home Alabama and Leap Year where women end up with more modest men who remind them of their roots and/or culture rather than their rich, pretentious fiancé. This is typically done for the cute factor, to make the characters more appealing and to push the cheesy idea that money cannot buy love and that love knows no economic stature.
However, there are never sequels to these movies. These movies never show these women moving out of their penthouse and shoving their Dolce & Gabbana jeans alongside their husband’s Wal-Mart flannel in their shared closet. They certainly do not show the male equivalent of a man choosing a homely woman who packs sack lunches over a sexy sultry young woman with single beauty marks and double jointed hips. So here the Oedipal complex is shown, but only in females. And naturally, this is just the archetypes that are shown in movies, but still. It is what is being pumped into our society and what is being implemented. Of course Freud is relevant, and has even leaked into our stories now, but it is a theory not a rule.
Word Count: 329
Works Cited
Leitch, Vincent B. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2010. Print.
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