Oedipus encodes desire flows into repressive social structures

Evidence

Placing the importance of biological considerations and of early childhood experiences alongside the importance of social considerations and post-childhood experiences meant giving women the chance to wrest their self-images from the shackles of patriarchal definitions. … Fromm’s assumption that instinctual structures were produced by the conditions of existence led him to demonstrate that the prevailing conditions of existence would continue indefinitely because they were embedded in instinctual structures. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 292 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Property inheritance structures shape the Oedipus complex’s strength. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 339; Freudian superego formation requires an Oedipus complex the child can repress.; Erotic desire fundamentally resists social regulation and institutions — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 406 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Theorizing instinct as socially produced can accidentally naturalize existing social conditions. #complicates (0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 292