Tell me about Complex (psychology)

[Yomi]

I'd like to know...exactly what it is.

[Unelias]

You want to know what? Definition? What it is like to have one? There are many different views on that. You might want to take a skim on Jungs archetype theory.

[Yomi]

You want to know what? Definition? What it is like to have one? There are many different views on that. You might want to take a skim on Jungs archetype theory. Yeah, sure. The Definition and what its like to have one.

[Unelias]

Well complex is a term you use ( mostly in psychoanalytical ) psychology for mass of unconcious factors that define your relation and behavior towards a particular subject. For example, during your childhood you might have had a lot of negative feelings against your own father and fatherhood as general. This would influence your later life and contribute for the fear of becoming a father or having a kid yourself. Or fearing to be a bad father yourself. Freud and Jung both layered their theory of human psyche around complexes and subconcious. While they had many major disagreements, I recall both accepted the fact that human personality is formed by a great mass of unconcious experiences that shape your personality, most of the time without your acknowledge. By deep therapy it is possible to unleash those repressed memories and trace the cause of problem to its roots, thus curing it. Freud invented maybe his most famous ( and maybe most controversial) theory about Oidipus complex ( and it's female variant, Elektra complex). Other common complexes include an inferiority complex or superiority complex. According to Freud they are all result of a childhood experiences gone awry, which lead the adult ego to be flawed and uncertain. Modern psychology, mostly the cognitive psychology, has diminished the childhood and subconcious factor a lot. Jung had a bit different approach, but they share many same core themes. For Jung complex is a form of a personal unconscious, core pattern of emotions, memories, perceptions, and wishes organized around a common theme. Although he didn't view complexes as inherently bad at all, mostly their results were. He believed the complexes ( the subconcious) acted on its own and interfered a lot with egos actions, disturbing emotions, memory, desires and wishes. He thought that if complex was strong enough and let unattented, it could surface itself as neurosis, obsession or worse. "Jung described the power complexes can hold when he said "what is not so well known, but far more important theoretically, is that complexes can have us. The existence of complexes throws serious doubt on the naive assumption of the unity of consciousness, which is equated with 'psyche,' and on the supremacy of the will. Every constellation of a complex postulates a disturbed state of consciousness. The unity of consciousness is disrupted and the intentions of the will are impeded or made impossible. Even memory is often noticeably affected, as we have seen. The complex must therefore be a psychic factor which, in terms of energy, possesses a value that sometimes exceeds that of our conscious intentions, otherwise such disruptions of the conscious order would not be possible at all. And in fact, an active complex puts us momentarily under a state of duress, of compulsive thinking and acting, for which under certain conditions the only appropriate term would be the judicial concept of diminished responsibility" (Jung, [1960] 1969:par. 200). Maybe this clears things out a a bit. I don't think I am able to tell what it is like to have a complex, although it just might me I am a sociopath, a narcist and/or some other assorted mental illnesses, which howerer haven't been proved yet.