Analysis of the Applicability of the Oedipus Complex in Understanding Sexual Difference

We live in a gendered society, in which individuals are generally categorised according to their sex, either male or female. Individuals also are identified, or identify themselves by their sexual orientation, i.e. heterosexual or homosexual. How are differences between men and women and variations within these groups to be understood? What part does culture and society play in shaping an individual? These are questions that the Viennese founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud attempted to answer throughout his long career in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. …