# Ophelia complex

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{{Short description|Psychological term}}
'''Ophelia complex''' is the term used by [Gaston Bachelard](/source/Gaston_Bachelard) to refer to the links between [femininity](/source/femininity), liquids, and [drowning](/source/drowning) which he saw as symbolised in the fate of Shakespeare's [Ophelia](/source/Ophelia).<ref>A. Thompson ed., ''Hamlet'' (Arden 2016) p. 26-7</ref>

==Main theme==
Bachelard traced in [Romanticism](/source/Romanticism) a nexus of ideas linking the dissolution of the self<ref>G. Wisker, ''Rites of Passage in Postcolonial Women's Writing'' (2010) p. 241</ref> – male or female – with immersion in the feminine element of water, as symbolised by Ophelia's drowning.<ref>P. Brooker, ''A Practical Reader in Contemporary Literary Theory'' (2010) p. 34</ref>

===Literary offshoots===
[Federico García Lorca](/source/Federico_Garc%C3%ADa_Lorca) explored the image of water and a despairing sexuality, epitomised in the Ophelia complex, throughout his writings.<ref>[https://muse.jhu.edu/article/510609/pdf The Weeping Brook]</ref>

==Exteriorised adolescence==
A later, and unconnected, use of the terms Ophelia complex/Ophelia syndrome was introduced by [Mary Pipher](/source/Mary_Pipher) in her ''[Reviving Ophelia](/source/Reviving_Ophelia)'' of 1994. There she argued for a view of Shakespeare's character as lacking inner direction and externally defined by men (father/brother),<ref>D. Lester, ''Katie's Diary'' (2004) p. 93–5</ref> and suggested that similar external pressures were currently faced by post-pubescent girls.<ref>K. Douglas, ''Life Narratives and Youth Culture'' (2007) p. 160</ref> The danger of the Ophelia syndrome was that of abandoning a rooted childhood self for an apparently more sophisticated but over-externalised [façade self](/source/True_self_and_false_self).<ref>D. Lester, ''Katie's Diary'' (2004) p. 95</ref>

==See also==
{{Columns-list|colwidth=22em|
*[Abjection](/source/Abjection)
*''[Bruges-la-Morte](/source/Bruges-la-Morte)''
*[Complex (psychology)](/source/Complex_(psychology))
*[Matriarchy](/source/Matriarchy)
*[Melusina](/source/Melusina)
*[Oceanic feeling](/source/Oceanic_feeling)
}}

== References ==
<!--- See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Footnotes on how to create references using <ref></ref> tags, these references will then appear here automatically -->
{{Reflist|2|}}

==Sources==
* G. Bachelard, ''L’Eau et les rêves: Essai sur l’imagination de la matière'' (Paris, 1942).

== External links ==
* [https://www.academia.edu/970991/Ophelia_and_Isabella_exoticizing_the_body_of_the_mad_woman Ophelia and Isabella]

Category:Psychoanalytic terminology
Category:Analytical psychology
Category:Complex (psychology)
Category:Freudian psychology
Category:Ophelia
Category:Drowning
Category:Femininity

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Ophelia complex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophelia_complex) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophelia_complex?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.