A description used in PSYCHOANALYSIS for the subconscious attraction of a child to its parent of the opposite sex. This is accompanied by a wish to get rid of the parent of the same sex. The origin of the phrase lies in the Greek story in which Oedipus, without knowing his parentage, kills his father and marries his mother. It has been suggested that the arrest of psychological development at the Oedipal stage may cause NEUROSIS and sexual dysfunction.