Apprentice complex
The apprentice complex is a
The term was introduced by Otto Fenichel in 1946, and has since been developed by postmodern writers on the construction of masculinity.[1]
Psychoanalytic views
Fenichel considered that the apprentice complex offered a ready mode of enjoying dependence under a guise of future independence[2] – temporary submission to the father's authority offering a means to becoming oneself a male in time.[3] Always ambivalent in that the ultimate goal is to replace the father, the complex may disguise a powerful degree of hostility, and was open to several forms of pathological distortion.[4] If meant by a paternal threat, the complex may regress to a passive identification with the mother.[5]
The apprentice complex also appears as a facet of therapeutic training, in an idealisation of the training therapist as the one who knows, which then requires working through.[6]
Cultural applications
- Daniel Defoe, with his multiplicity of careers, his shifting political allegiances, and his prolific use of irony and masks in his writing, has been seen as a lifelong example of the apprentice complex.[7]
- The intensity of mother-attachment in Hindu youth has been seen as producing an apprentice complex-style 'identification through submission' to their fathers, as a compensatory force.[8]
See also
References
- ^ S. Akhtar, Comprehensive Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (2009) p. 26
- ^ O. Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (London 1946) p. 564
- ^ O. Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (London 1946) p. 423
- ^ O. Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (London 1946) p. 334 and p. 227
- ^ O. Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (London 1946) p. 894
- ^ C. A. Colarusso, Adult Development (2013) p. 267
- ^ Leo Abse, The Bi-sexuality of Daniel Defoe (2006) p. 25
- ^ P. Bansai, Youth in Contemporary India (2012) p. 240