Apprentice complex

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The apprentice complex is a psychodynamic constellation whereby a boy or youth resolves the Oedipus complex by an identification with his father, or father figure, as someone from whom to learn the future secrets of masculinity.

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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

See also

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References

  1. ↑ S. Akhtar, Comprehensive Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (2009) p. 26
  2. ↑ O. Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (London 1946) p. 564
  3. ↑ O. Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (London 1946) p. 423
  4. ↑ O. Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (London 1946) p. 334 and p. 227
  5. ↑ O. Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (London 1946) p. 894
  6. ↑ C. A. Colarusso, Adult Development (2013) p. 267
  7. ↑ Leo Abse, The Bi-sexuality of Daniel Defoe (2006) p. 25
  8. ↑ P. Bansai, Youth in Contemporary India (2012) p. 240
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