Le complexe d’Œdipe et les systèmes de parenté face aux transformations de la famille contemporaine : un débat entre anthropologie et psychanalyse

Abstract

Background

This article proposes a critical reading of the concept of the Oedipus complex in Freud's work from the point of view of the issues raised in anthropology regarding the question of kinship systems.

Objectives

We will try to understand how the influence of evolutionary anthropology on the Freudian conception of the family can be a theoretical obstacle in the face of the transformations of the contemporary family in the West.

Method

We will analyze the Freudian hypotheses from Totem and taboo in light of Malinowski's criticisms of the universality of in the Oedipus complex as well as those of Godelier, Lévi-Strauss, and Schneider on the evolutionary paradigm in anthropological research on systems of kinship.

Results

The critique of the fundamentally reproductive and biologicist conception of the family inherent in evolutionary anthropology and in the Oedipal theories presented in Totem and Taboo can allow psychoanalysts to avoid a normative position with regard to the new forms of family-making.

Interpretations

The scope of Freudian theories remains limited when confronting the transformations of the contemporary Western family, but Freud's theoretical developments around the concept of “complex” and the double Oedipus complex provide psychoanalysts with leads that can enable them to evade the evolutionary conception of kinship systems inherent in the classic Oedipus complex.