The phenomenology and ontology of the Oedipus complex

Abstract This paper will continue my earlier work that provided a phenomenological and ontological explanation of Jung’s complex theory (Gildersleeve in Procedia Soc Behav Sci 217:967–976, 2016). This paper will contribute to that earlier work by providing a phenomenological explanation of Freud’s writing on the Oedipus complex and this phenomenological description will also allow the ontological meaning of the Oedipus complex to be understood. This work reveals the convergent ideas between Martin Heidegger’s philosophy and Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis and this provides support to defend the existence of Freud’s arguments on the Oedipus complex by explaining it through the lived experience vocabulary of phenomenology. This article also demonstrates that Jung’s and Freud’s writing on complexes possess the same phenomenological and ontological structure and this shows that their respective theories can be integrated to develop psychoanalytic theory and practice in new ways. Finally, this work contributes to the writing of Medard Boss and the Daseinsanalysis literature that has yet to provide a Daseinsanalytic interpretation of the Oedipus complex