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That the play deals with the mother-son interaction is what 'Oedipus Rex' has to do with psychoanalysis pioneer Sigmund Freud [May 6, 1856-September 23, 1939]. In psychoanalysis, healthy male development requires successfully passing through childhood, during which a mother's influence may dominate. But in adolescence, a father's role modeling for adulthood needs to take over.

Some mental and social problems that overwhelm some males in adolescence and adulthood may trace back to a rocky passage through childhood. Such males may be said to suffer from an 'Oedipus complex'.

The term 'Oedipus complex' comes from the basic problem in the play. Albeit unknowingly, Theban King Oedipus kills his own father and marries his own mother. A kind of symbolic death is given to the father and a kind of symbolic incest is given out by the mother when the male child heeds the maternal influence and doesn't heed the paternal enough or at all.

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Q: What does 'Oedipus Rex' have to do with Sigmund Freud?
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