Named thus by the psychiatrist, Carl Gustav Jung, the Electra complex is a theoretical concept referring to the Greek heroine who avenged her father Agamemnon by having her own mother, Clytemnestra, murdered.

The supposed equivalent of Freud’s Oedipus complex, the Electra complex is however more subtle, not applying in all parallel to the feminine the theories known for the male child.

It’s a fact: the relationship between a father and his daughter remains special. Psychoanalysis has given a name to this relationship: the Electra complex, taking its name from Greek mythology, was named by the psychiatrist doctor Jung, in order to describe the equivalent relationship on the daughters side of the famous “Oedipus complex”. As a reminder, the Oedipus complex refers to the special bond that exists between a mother and her son. This complex has been qualified by the neurologist Sigmund Freud. In mythology, Oedipus was cursed to kill his father in order to marry his mother. In psychoanalysis, we thus describe the will of young children (boys) to want to take the place of the father, in order to marry their mother.

Concerning the Electra complex, Greek mythology relates as well as Electra’s mother (or her lover) killed Agamemnon after his return from the Trojan War. Electra then decided to avenge him by having his own mother murdered.

This Electra complex was named so to qualify a relationship between a father and his daughter, quite different from the connection between a mother and her son. It can be defined as the stage at which little girls (between the ages of 3 and 6) compete with their mothers for their father’s full attention.

It turns out to be more complex than a simple feminine parallel of the Oedipus complex. Indeed, according to Freud, there is no “Law of the Mother”, and the question cannot be resolved by a simple equivalence.

The mother is the first object of love for children, boys or girls, from birth. But, seeing that their parents are having sex, girl and boy cannot react in the same way. The boy intervenes and comes into conflict with his father, thanks to his penis which he shows off. The daughter, deprived of a penis, can only react in three ways: rejection of sexuality, rejection of her future as a woman, choice of the father as an object of love. The little girl therefore sees the mother figure as a rival, because she wants to win the affection of the father. This affects all female children, often inconspicuously. But if this continues over time, and the father figure serves as a model for a very long time, then we can speak of an Electra complex.

The girl will seek thereafter, in adolescence and adulthood, people who resemble her father, bringing him security and assurance.

Between 3 and 6 years old, we can meet this type of signs in a little girl:

• The girl repeats sentences like: “When I grow up, I want to marry Dad” or other similar phrases showing the love she has for her father;
• The little girl is more sensitive to the departure of her father and begins to cry without being able to console her when her father leaves;
• She wants often intervene between his father and his mother, placing himself in the middle. Obviously jealous of her mother, she reacts to the demonstrations of love exchanged within the couple;
• During this phase, we notice a certain resentment towards the mother, which “encroaches” on the affection she seeks from her father.

This stage in little girls is all that is most normal in their psychological development. In order for it to unravel as harmoniously as possible, it is advisable not to show signs of worry, not to go against your desires for affection and assurance, and to show patience. By reassuring the child of the affection that both parents have for him, this allows the child to mature and grow by building his own identity. Her father especially, must assure her his love and his protection, whatever the situation or the attitude of the little girl, by insisting on the fact that the mother will always remain “in love” with the father. Gradually, she will begin to want to go to other people, showing that her Oedipus is in the process of being resolved.