Oedipus Wrecked: Study Supporting the Mother of All Psychological Complexes Withdrawn
You may have read headlines last fall along the lines of "Have you got a hot mom? Chances are your wife will be a looker, too." That one was courtesy of New Scientist, but other media outlets, including the BBC and the Guardian, also covered a study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B that seemed to provide evidence for the Oedipus complex described by Sigmund Freud and expanded by his protégés: Men pick women who look like their mothers, and women pick men who resemble their fathers.But Freud may have called the findings by Tamás Bereczkei and two co-authors at the University of Pécs in Hungary a parapraxis--aka the dreaded Freudian slip, a minor error in speech or action that belies one's subconscious wishes or proclivities. Earlier this month, the journal retracted the study after another scientist questioned it. [More]