Why did freud think everyone had an oedipus complex?
Freud believed that a normal part of male development was moving from an alignment with the mother to an alignment with the father. He posited that this occurred around the age of 5 when a boy begins reconcile the desire to have an exclusive relationship with his mother (Freud described this as a sexual desire, but sexual drives pretty much dominated his theory – it’s not usually thought of as sexual in an adult way). This coincides with a desire to get rid of the father. Nowadays, it is probably best thought of as a metaphor. Because this “complex” was essentially normal, Freud believed that all children went through this stage.
