Electra complex

The Electra complex (aka "Daddy Issues" or the "Bernfeld Factor") is a concept found in Psychoanalytic theory that attempts to address issues of female development. It is based largely on the work of Sigmund Freud, and uses the Oedipal complex as a point of reference for its elaboration. Freud referred to it as the "feminine Oedipus attitude" in his own writings. It was later renamed the "Electra complex" by his contemporary Carl Jung, although Freud himself rejected the use of the term because it "seeks to emphasize the analogy between the attitude of the two sexes."

Freud's research on female psychology, sexuality in particular, was limited by social conventions of gender and class. Women of the period were considered the 'second sex' and many of his female patients were labeled "degenerates". The "feminine Oedipus attitude" was posited by Freud as a theoretical counterpart to the Oedipus complex. Carl Jung proposed the name Electra complex for Freud's concept, deriving the name from the Greek myth of Electra, who wanted her brother to avenge the death of the siblings' father Agamemnon, by killing their mother, Clytemnestra.

According to Freud, a girl, like a boy, is originally attached to the mother figure. However, during the phallic stage, when she discovers that she lacks a penis, she becomes libidinally attached to the father figure, and imagines that she will become pregnant by him, all the while becoming more hostile toward her mother. Freud attributes the character of this developmental stage in girls to the idea of "penis envy", where a girl is envious of the male penis. According to the theory, this penis envy leads to resentment towards the mother figure, who is believed to have caused the girl's "castration." The hostility towards the mother is then later revoked for fear of losing the mother's love, and the mother becomes internalized, much the same as the Oedipus Complex.