Are daddy issues and the electra complex the same thing?

Question

My councellor was talking to me about the electra complex out of nowhere today and i was wondering was that his way of telling me that I have daddy issues. I won't see him for another month but what do yous think? Me and my dad rarely talk

Eugene · Accepted Answer

"Daddy issues" and "Electra complex" are 2 different things:
1.) "Daddy complex" means that a girl had either terrible relations with her dad (he abused/harmed/neglected her), or he was completely absent in her life, which has left a significant void of father's love in her soul. Hence she's trying to find older man in order to replicate father-daughter relations with goal of trying to find hope to get a "second chance" to make things right this time, trying to be a "perfect daughter" to make "daddy proud and happy" by almost any means necessary to ultimately win his approval.

In much, MUCH more rare cases "daddy issues" can be said about a girl who's father was so awesome (in a good way!) that a girl is constantly struggling to find a man that reminds her of her dad as much as possible, but with romantic/sexual aspect added to it, because in her heart she believes her father is the perfect man.

2.) "Electra complex" is a very rare mental disorder where a girl enters into competition with her own mother to get the attention of her own father, regardless if he's a good one or a bad one (surprisingly, it happens USUALLY when a dad is actually both a good father AND a good husband). In this case a girl isn't looking for other men to replicate relations similar to those with her dad, but actually goes for her *actual* dad, while treating her own mother as a direct competitor. Since a girl realizes that main difference between her and mom is that a mother has sex with a father, a girl is trying to literally seduce her own dad and in some fucked up cases even plans to kill her own mother to have her dad "all to herself".

MrMysteryMan · Accepted Answer

Well I just googled it and read a bit about it. Basically it's a psychological way of saying that you are and want to be very close to your mother (sexually) because of your childhood bond with her, but then you notice that daddy has a penis and your mom has a vagina, but you don't have a penis. So you can't possibly gratify your mother the same way as your father could because you don't have the equipment. So you turn your sensuality onto your father to try and tease the mother or sexually frustrate the mother or something like this.

It's daddy issues but not in the same breath as wanting a father figure sexual partner type of daddy issues. More mommy issues than daddy issues. I could be way off on this however.

kaylaS91 · Accepted Answer

The electra complex is a term taken from the field of psychoanalysis used to describe how, during a female's development (from infancy to around 10-11 years of age), the main thing that influences and affects her behaviour is essentially competition with her mother to win her father's attention.

She sees her mother with her father and realizes that her mother is stronger (mentally as well as physically) than herself. As a result of witnessing how this is enough to win her father's attention and affection, she then uses her mother as a template on which to model her own personal growth.

Is that the same thing as having 'daddy issues'? Depends on how you define daddy issues. I've seen people use it in a variety of contexts, usually referring to when a girl's behaviour is a bit wild and it just so happens, by coincidence, that her dad left the family when she was infant. In which case... they could be the same. Though it's arguable just how legitimate the electra complex is in affecting a girl's mental development.

AustinMan · Answer

Do some deeper research on what constitutes an electra complex and think about how it applies.

Browneye57 · Answer

I had to google the term - based on what i read I would say not. You?

I thought it was interesting coming from Carl Jung - a philospher that pioneered trait typing that was further developed in the full MBTI personality typing by Kathleen Meyers and Isabel Briggs some years much later.

Anyway, he likely wanted you to look up or study the term to gain some insight, perhaps or perhaps not, on your own situation.

Why do you rarely talk to your dad?
I have to grown daughters, 25 and 30, from my first marriage. Both are close but the oldest is way close since she spent her late teen years in my home with current wife. In any case, girls benefit from their relationship with their dad - but likely both have traces of 'daddy issues'. The oldest married a man 10 years her senior with a child and she does not ever plan to have her own. :(

RaisingKaneFromHell · Answer

What is the Electra complex in psychology?
In Neo-Freudian psychology, the Electra complex, as proposed by Carl Gustav Jung,
is a girl's psychosexual competition with her mother for possession of her father.

What is the definition of daddy issues?
It's from Jung's Electra complex that we've derived the modern concept of “daddy issues.” These days, people say a woman has daddy issues when she appears to be seeking attention from men in order to compensate for the attention she may not have received from her father.