The Electra complex is a psychiatric concept which attempts to explain the maturation of the human female. It is said to be the female counterpart to the Oedipus complex in males. Its name comes from the Greek myth of Electra who sought to avenge the murder of her father Agamemnon.
Carl Gustav Jung proposed the name Electra complex for Sigmund Freud's concept of the "feminine Oedipus attitude" in young girls. According to Freud, the girl is originally attached to the mother as well; however, when she discovers that she lacks a penis, she becomes angry at her mother and holds her responsible. She therefore turns her libidinal attachment onto the father and imagines that she will become pregnant by him. She believes that the pregnancy would replace the missing penis which she envies (penis envy), and would allow her to gain equal status with the father.
Feminists generally regard this theory as sexist. The assertion that women suffer from penis envy is generally attributed to the Victorian assertion that male sex organs are somehow better than those of females. Others believe that due to the extensive privilege of the male sex in comparison to the female sex that at the time it was true, because women wanted these rights and after the success of the women's rights movement this penis envy ended for all but a few women.
While fashionable for a number of decades, this idea is no longer regarded as a serious psychological concept except by fundamentalist Freudians. A modern counter to this idea is offered, known as the Westermarck effect in which imprinting during childhood prevents incestual sexual attraction.
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