PSYCHO-LOGICS OF OEDIPUS/ELECTRA COMPLEX: FAMILY RELATIONSHIP IMPLICATIONS AND THE NIGERIAN EXPERIENCE

Resumen

Oedipus/Electra complex has proven to be a cardinal source of tension in marriage relationship, hence creating hindrance to cordiality between siblings, parents and in-laws.This hindrance is premised on the fact that Oedipus/Electra complex implies some form of extremism that breeds contempt in families. While Oedipus complex implies a form of intimacy between mother and favorite son, Electra complex implies intimacy between the father and favorite daughter. As growing children, Oedipus/Electra complex causes jealousy among siblings, denies moral courage to correct children for proper training, excuses the fault of the favorite child, miscarriage of justice/partiality, affects the bond/intimacy between favored child's husband/wife. This paper aims at understanding, exposing, analyzing and providing the necessary prospects to family, marriage, or relationship challenges which extremism of Oedipus/Electra complex imposes. Similarly, this paper offers a thorough research on the implications of Oedipus/Electra complex in marriage especially from a Nigerian experience. Expository and analytic methods are adopted for this study. Thus, the method of exposition is to uncover the concepts of Oedipus/Electra complex and marriage situations in Nigeria while analytic method serves to offer philosophical analysis of Oedipus/Electra complex as well as drawing its implications in marriage experiences. The implication of this study shows that adequate understanding of the effects of Oedipus/Electra complex in marriage/family experience would offer prospects towards caution and mitigation of the extremism of Oedipus/Electra complex.