The Oedipus Complex and the Role of Religion in the Neurosis of Father Hunger

This essay discusses Freud's writings on the Oedipus Complex to illumine his distinction between a boy's object-choice and identification with his father. Explains why object-choice is relinquished in favor of identification in the demolition of the Oedipus Complex. Identifies homophobia as an effect of this outcome, and indicates how the Judaeo-Christian religion is implicated in the fact that love between boys and their fathers is unrealized, and thus why men are inflicted with the neurosis of father hunger.