Oedipally

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. A psychological complex involving a child's affection for the parent of the opposite sex and hostility towards the same-sex parent is encapsulated by this term
2. Pertaining to a scenario in which a child's emotional bond with one parent contrasts with feelings of rivalry towards the other parent, this concept centers around familial dynamics
3. Concerning the psychological theory where a child experiences desire for the opposite-sex parent and jealousy toward the same-sex parent

Etymology: Oedipally is an adverb built from "oedipal" and the suffix "-ly," and the adjective it rests on carries the real story. "Oedipal" comes from Oedipus, the king of Thebes in Greek myth, who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother. Freud took that tragedy as the name for a stage of childhood development in which a child's attachment to one parent is bound up with rivalry toward the other, and the adjective followed from his terminology. The suffix is the older and plainer part of the word. "-ly" descends from an Old English form, "-līce," which was attached to adjectives to turn them into adverbs of manner, and it has been doing that job in English ever since. Adding it to "oedipal" yields a word meaning "in an oedipal manner" or "with regard to the oedipal dynamic."

Synonyms: psychosexually, familially, intrapsychically, developmentally, emotionally