In psychoanalytic theory, the Jocasta complex is the

incest Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adopti ...

uous

sexual desire Sexual desire is an emotion and motivational state characterized by an interest in sexual objects or activities, or by a drive to seek out sexual objects or to engage in sexual activities. It is an aspect of sexuality, which varies significantly f ...

of a mother towards her son. Raymond de Saussure introduced the term in 1920 by way of analogy to its logical converse in psychoanalysis, the

Oedipus complex The Oedipus complex (also spelled Œdipus complex) is an idea in psychoanalytic theory. The complex is an ostensibly universal phase in the life of a young boy in which, to try to immediately satisfy basic desires, he unconsciously wishes to hav ...

, and it may be used to cover different degrees of attachment, including domineering but asexual mother love – something perhaps particularly prevalent with an absent father.

Origins

The Jocasta complex is named for Jocasta, a Greek queen who unwittingly married her son, Oedipus. The Jocasta complex is similar to the

, in which a child has sexual desire towards their parent(s). The term is a bit of an extrapolation, since in the original story Oedipus and Jocasta were unaware that they were mother and son when they married. The usage in modern contexts involves a son with full knowledge of who his mother is.

Analytic discussion

Theodor Reik Theodor Reik (; 12 May 1888, in Vienna, Austria – 31 December 1969, in New York) was a psychoanalyst who trained as one of Freud's first students in Vienna, Austria, and was a pioneer of lay analysis in the United States. Education and career ...

saw the "Jocasta mother", with an unfulfilled adult relationship of her own and an over-concern for her child instead, as a prime source of

neurosis Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving chronic distress, but neither delusions nor hallucinations. The term is no longer used by the professional psychiatric community in the United States, having been eliminated from th ...

George Devereux Georges Devereux (born György Dobó; 13 September 1908 – 28 May 1985) was a Hungarian-French ethnologist and psychoanalyst, often considered the founder of ethnopsychiatry.

went further, arguing that the child's Oedipal complex was itself triggered by a pre-existing parental complex (Jocasta/ Laius). Eric Berne also explored the other (parental) side of the Oedipus complex, pointing to related family dramas such as "mother sleeping with daughter's boyfriend ... when mother has no son to play Jocasta with". With her feminist articulation of Jocasta Complex and

Laius complex The Laius complex revolves around the paternal wish for filicide, particularly for the extinction of the male heir, in an attempt to ensure one will have no successors. Mythological background Indo-European mythology contains a number of stories of ...

Bracha L. Ettinger criticises the classical psychoanalytic perception of Jocasta, of the maternal, the feminine, and the Oedipal/castration model in relation to the mother-child links.

Cultural analogues

Atossa Atossa (Old Persian: ''Utauθa'', or Old Iranian: ''Hutauθa''; 550–475 BC) was an Achaemenid empress. She was a daughter of Cyrus the Great, and a wife of Darius I. Name The name "Atossa" (or "Atusa") means "bestowing very richly" or "well ...

, in the Greek tragedy ''

The Persians ''The Persians'' ( grc, Πέρσαι, ''Persai'', Latinised as ''Persae'') is an Greek tragedy, ancient Greek tragedy written during the Classical Greece, Classical period of Ancient Greece by the Greek tragedian Aeschylus. It is the second and on ...

'', has been seen as struggling in her dreams with a Jocasta complex. *Some American folk-tales often feature figures, like Jocasta, expressing maternal desire for their sons.L. Edmunds/A. Dundes, ''Oedipus: A Folklore Casebook'' (1995) p. 255

Origins

Analytic discussion

Cultural analogues

See also

References

Further reading