Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of the Oedipus complex.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Alternative capitalization of Oedipal

Etymologies

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Examples

  • As we approach the critical months of the national campaign, Obama may need to recall the oedipal lessons learned from his step-father or consult his notes on the Balinese cockfight.

    Obama and the Balinese Cockfight 2008

  • I would identify as the oedipal crisis of the narrative: the moment at which the father struggles to recognize his daughter as a sexual woman, an individual who has defied him and allowed herself to enter into an illicit passion with a seducer who has no intention of making her his wife.

    Talking About Virtue: Paisiello's 'Nina,' Paër's 'Agnese,' and the Sentimental Ethos 2005

  • This procession is such a long one that one feels one surely should have a female counterpart to place beside Oedipus — until one remembers that, according to Freud, "oedipal" is an adjective that can be employed for a child of either sex who desires to exclude the parent of the same sex and usurp that position.

    Elektra in Tehran Desai, Anita 2009

  • Patrick 4:23 am on June 25, 2008 | # | Reply maybe none of it happened and it was some kind of oedipal fantasy all along.

    I’M AT A LOSS FOR WORDS » Sociological Images 2008

  • "oedipal" and "oral-anal" forms assigned by Paulson to revolutionary conflict itself (8), though certainly the discourse becomes more violent in the 1790s.

    'Manlius to Peter Pindar':Satire, Patriotism, and Masculinity in the 1790s 2006

  • But it would be equally wrong to imagine that these students are merely suffering some kind of oedipal rebellion, unconsciously bent on overthrowing and replacing their fathers ” in spite of the implications of some of their favorite terms.

    A Special Supplement: The Old School at The New School Diamond, Stanley 1970

  • The role of pre-oedipal factors in the genesis of the sexual perversions of adult life has received increasing emphasis over the past two decades.

    Confining Beliefs to Defined Domains 2009

  • Getty Images William Shakespeare Dana, who has long shared with her father a deep affection for Shakespeare's works, is annoyed by her brother's obsession with exposing the hoax and says he suffers from "a double oedipal complex, and one of your dads is four hundred years old."

    Out of the Miasma of Bardolatry, a Masterpiece Sam Sacks 2011

  • There's also a bit of awkward, oedipal chat -- Pattinson played an aged Witherspoon's son in the 2004 film "Vanity Fair," though the scene was eventually cut.

    Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon Talk Love Scenes Jordan Zakarin 2011

  • Indeed, despite all the potent oedipal stuff flying around – Loudon's songs about his own father, Rufus's songs about Loudon, Loudon and Martha's hammy accusatory duet, "You Never Phone" – the Wainwright family rancour has been superseded by warmth.

    Rufus Wainwright and Loudon Wainwright III – review 2011

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