Unreachable Oedipus complex in TV Show «Why Women Kill»

Psychoanalysis of cinema

Abstract

The Oedipus complex is the basis for structuring a person's personality and the basis for the formation of desires. Psychoanalysts consider the Oedipus complex to be the main cause of psychopathology and strive to find the causes of its occurrence, in all their diversity, and ways to overcome it for all types of fixations and neuroses.

Psychoanalytic anthropology considers the Oedipus Triangle (mother-father-child) to be a universal structure. Manifestations of this structure are typical not only for cultures in which the family is represented in the traditional sense for us, based on marriage ties, but can also be found in other types of cultures (Laplanche J., Pontalis J.-B., 2016).

In this article, we will analyze the conflicts of the characters of the TV show“Why Women Kill” in a psychoanalytic approach. We will try to identify conflicts that have an Oedipal cause, make assumptions about possible problems during the passage of the Oedipus complex. We will also illustrate the universality of the Oedipus complex as the main cause of conflicts in paired and triangular relationships in different time periods (and therefore in different sociocultural conditions) and for people with various sexual orientations.