Quotes About Oedipus

His fixation in the Oedipus phase also manifested in his selection of victims. They represented his sister. The female victims were mostly women in the prime of their lives, except for the little girl who happened to be present when Mhlengwa raped her mother. Only the last three victims were in their forties and fifties, indicating that subconsciously his anger had shifted from his sister to his mother.

He experienced a severe rejection when his sister left the family when he was ten years old. She had abandoned him and he was very angry with her. Mhlengwa chose victims who represented his sister and raped them to act out the sexual fantasies of the Oedipus phase and he killed them to act out the aggressive fantasies that resulted from his anger at being rejected.

Another South African serial killer who fixated in the Oedipus phase was the Cape Town Prostitute Killer. He had, however, lost the battle for his mother's affection and felt mentally castrated by her rejection and her preference for other men.

The women represented his sister, whom he had adored and who had abandoned him. He was still subconsciously in love with her, as she fulfilled the mother-role in the Oedipus triangle.

Like it or not, after Freud, no one had to read Sophocles to know something about Oedipus.