Medusa complex
{{Short description|Psychological complex}}
Medusa complex is a psychological complex revolving around the petrification or freezing of human emotion, and drawing on the classical myth of the Medusa.{{Cite book|title=The Concise Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science|date=2004-04-19|publisher=Wiley|isbn=9780471220367|editor-last=Craighead|editor-first=W. Edward|edition= 3rd|location=New York Chichester|language=English|editor-last2=Nemeroff|editor-first2=Charles B.}}
Origins
The term Medusa Complex was coined in 1948 by Gaston BachelardF. Gleyzon, Shakespeare's Spiral (2010) p. 209 to cover the feeling of petrification induced by the threat of the parental gaze.J-P Sartre, Saint Genet (2012) p. 268 A mute, paralysed fury responds to the danger of the obliteration of an individual consciousness by an external Other (and perhaps by the corresponding internalised desire to obliterate the subjectivity of others in turn).A. Passo, Novel Configurations (1994) p. 215
Developments
Later writers have developed Bachelard's idea in various ways.
- Attachment theory uses the Medusa Complex to refer to a self-destructive early state of inwardly directed aggression produced by a disruption of the mother/child mutual gaze.W. Craighead ed. The Concise Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioural Science (2014) p. 1044
- Marion Woodman saw the Medusa Complex as a dissociated state produced by paralysis of the fight-or-flight response in a state of petrified fear.P. Bennett ed., Montreal 2010 (2012) p. 1593 She also saw it as the possible by-product of a conflict between an idealised, perfect state and the actual reality of one's feelings and emotions.[https://truebeautyalways.com/2013/03/03/waltzing-with-medusa/ Waltzing with Medusa]
- Marjorie Garber saw the Medusa Complex pervading Macbeth in the form of gender trauma.L. Shamas, We Three (2007) p. 36
- Francois-Xavier Gleyzon used the Medusa Complex in reference to Shakespeare's King Lear.{{Cite book|url=https://www.amazon.com/Shakespeares-Spiral-Tracing-Renaissance-Painting-ebook/dp/B009W3W2JI/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1529847384&sr=1-1&keywords=9780761848936|title=Shakespeare's Spiral: Tracing the Snail in King Lear and Renaissance Painting|last=results|first=search|date=2010-03-19|publisher=UPA|language=English}}
See also
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References
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External links
- [http://www.tedhiebert.net/site/downloads/writings/Hiebert-MedusaComplex.pdf The Medusa Complex]
Category:Psychoanalytic terminology