오이디푸스와 같이 자신의 행위와 전혀 관계없이 유럽의 국가종교체제, 기독교 절대주의, 반유대주의에 의해 죄인이 될 수밖에 없는 자신의 운명에 대해 공개적으로 항거할 수 없었던 프로이트는 오이디푸스 콤플렉스란 상징을 통해서 타부를 깨고 자유롭게 표현하였다. 상징은 내외적 의미와 같이 서로 다른 의미들이 합성된 콤플렉스를 의미한다. 수사학은 상징 곧 콤플렉스를 통해 타부를 넘어서 자유롭게 표현하는 방법이기도 하다. 오이디푸스 콤플렉스란 상징을 통해 죄인 프로이트는 오이디푸스로 변신하는 순간부터 타부를 넘어 사상과 표현의 자유를 소유한 존재로 돌변한다.
아버지 살해와 어머니와의 근친상간 그리고 거세 공포라는 개념으로 구성된 오이디푸스 콤플렉스는 유럽의 정신과 문화가 범죄와 처벌이란 공포에 근거한 것임을 의미하는 상징이다. 유대교 특히 기독교는 모든 인간이 죄인이라고 정죄하지만 유대-기독교는 사실 인간이 신이 되어 인류 자체를 죄인이라고 살해하는 범죄이다. 유대-기독교의 죄와 벌 개념을 핵심으로 발전한 유럽 기독교 국가종교체제는 왕이 신이 되어 폭력과 처벌을 통해 절대왕정체제를 유지한 범죄이다. 유럽의 반유대주의는 유럽의 정신적 아버지인 유대교와 유대인을 살해하는 아버지 살해의 범죄이다.
시대적 한계 속에서 프로이트는 죄에는 죄란 논리로 오이디푸스 콤플렉스를 통해서 기독교는 모든 인간을 죄인으로 정죄하는 강박 신경증이지만 기독교 자체가 죄라는 무의식을 의식화하여 기독교를 치유하고자 한다.
In the most general sense of the word, rhetoric, means the art of creative expressions. Its specific areas might include the concerns about how to express one’s own thoughts despite the presence of the taboo that prohibits to do so. Using the multiple meanings of the language, to write between the lines is the most typical way of this kind of rhetoric. Thus, rhetorically composed texts have various layers of different meanings within themselves.
From this perspective, Sigmund Freud(1857-1939) is a rhetorical writer. He created a neurotic term, Oedipus complex, through his psychoanalysis of totemism of ancient primitives, Greek tragedy, Tyrant Oedipus of Sophocles(B.C.E. 496-406), and young male children’s psychic tendencies. Yet, Freud had developed and disclosed the meanings of Oedipus complex over 40 years through books, including The Interpretation of Dreams, Totem and Taboo, and Moses and Monotheism. It can be called dialectical rhetoric, the method that progresses little by little. Dialectical rhetoric also includes historical one that detaches Freud from the Oedipus complex, because he constantly gave credits to other writers such as Charles Darwin and R. S. Smith for the idea of the Oedipus complex. One of the purposes of both rhetoric include the protection of Freud from the would-be criticisms and constraints.
The most commonly known meaning of the Oedipus complex is the symptom of neurosis of a young male child who sexually loves his mother but hates his father because he considers his father as the competitioner for his mother, although he respects his father as the father.
The Oedipus complex has deeper and more serious meanings such as patricide by his own son and incest with his own mother. Freud insists that these crimes are the origins of the whole Western culture, including politics, ethics, and religion. With his constant concerns about religion, he stressed that those crimes are the origin of Judaism and Christianity. Especially the ideas of patricide have relation with Moses, Jesus, the apostle Paul and the Last Supper. The ideas of incest is hidden in the deification of the totem animals and human beings.
In the deepest layer of the concept of the Oedipus Complex appears Freud as Oedipus. Here Oedipus means the conquer, as Hanibal almost defeated the Roman Empire. Like Hannibal, Freud sentences the whole Western history as the remnant of those crimes. There are still hidden meanings in the Oedipus complex because it means that the Christian Westerners have murdered Jews with anti-semitism, even though Jews are their religious and intellectual fathers, because Judaism is the father of Christianity, and Moses, Jesus, and the apostle Paul were all Jews.
So far, it is generally thought that psychoanalysis has less relationship with hermeneutics. Yet, Freud’s hermeneutics of unconsciousness might contribute to uncover the hidden meanings of the elusive language.