The Oedipal theory’s universality was challenged as ethnocentric by its critics.

Evidence

There has been no shortage of critics to argue that the attempt to create a general theory of the human condition out of an ancient Greek myth and on the basis of clinical data obtained from neurotic white middle-class Viennese is a case of blatant ethnocentrism. Freud’s defenders, whilst conceding that some of his attitudes and opinions are undoubtedly those of a “man of his culture and time,” nevertheless argue that his fundamental discoveries transcend these limitations and, with suitable modification, can be applied to other cultures and other times. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1360

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to broader debates about universalism vs cultural relativism in social theory, and the postmodern epistemology turn. — connects to: Fromm interpreted the Jewish Sabbath through the Freudian father-killing and Oedipal framework. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 213