Oedipus: The Truth of Repressed Human Desire

Introduction: Humans Facing Unavoidable Fate

The name ‘Oedipus’ is familiar to modern people as a synonym for psychoanalysis. A king who struggled to avoid the oracle that he would kill his father and marry his mother, but in the end completed all those tragedies himself.

Sigmund Freud discovered universal unconscious desires of humans in this tragedy of ancient Greece. However, the myth of Oedipus goes beyond the provocative material called ‘incest’ and shows the desperate self-recognition we experience when facing our own ‘truth.‘

1. Rejection and Realization of the Oracle: Unconscious Determinism

Oedipus tried to avoid tragedy by running away from his parents. However, the path he ran away from was the place where tragedy was completed.

• Return of the Repressed: The more we try to suppress (Repression) a thought or emotion and run away, the more it reappears in a more powerful form in an unexpected place. When Oedipus killed an old man who would not get out of the way, he had no idea he was killing his ‘father.’ This symbolizes the power of the unconscious invisibly steering our actions.
• Limit of Denial: The strong conviction that “I could never be like that” is often a defense mechanism hiding the deepest unconscious motives.

2. The Riddle of the Sphinx: Ego’s Omnipotence and Intellectual Pride

Oedipus became a hero of Thebes after solving the riddle of the Sphinx.

• Trap of Reason: Oedipus believed he saved the world with his intelligence and logic. However, he could not solve the most essential riddle of ‘who am I.’ This shows the contradiction where modern people are armed with knowledge and logic and fall into the ego’s omnipotence (Omnipotence), but cannot look into the depths of their own inner selves.

3. The Act of Gouging Eyes: Recognition and Mourning of Horrible Truth

When all truths were revealed, he gouged his own eyes and set out on a wandering journey.

• Insight Beyond Vision: By losing his physical eyes, he finally gets to see his truth with his ‘mind’s eye.’ This means the process of ‘Insight’ where one sheds the shell of the false ego and accepts oneself as one is, though it is painful.
• Guilt and Atonement: The process of acknowledging one’s faults and paying the price oneself symbolizes psychological growth, passing the stage of immature desires and being reborn as a ‘moral and conscientious human.‘

Conclusion: What Kind of Riddle is Your Unconscious Posing?

The story of Oedipus tells us, “In the place where you want to run away the farthest, your truth lies.”

We all face moments in life where we think, “Why did I do that?” Whether to hide one’s eyes and run away like Oedipus or to gaze directly at that truth though it is sorrowful depends on our choice. Today, bring out one question that has been suppressed in your heart. The moment you answer that question honestly, you can become the true master of your life, not a slave to fate.

In the next post, through the hero ‘Perseus’ who cut off the head of Medusa and saved his mother, we will look at the psychological conditions for escaping the huge influence of the mother and becoming an independent subject.