With the firm establishment of object love towards the parent of the opposite sex, the conditions are present for the arousal of jealousy towards the parent of the same sex, since this latter is soon found to possess claims upon the affection and attention of the loved parent which are apt to conflict with the similar claims of the child. Thus the young girl begins to resent the affection and consideration which her mother receives at the hands of her father and comes in time to look upon her mother as in some sense a sexual rival who competes with her father's love. In imagination she will allow herself to occupy her mother's place and may even attempt to put this fancy into practice, if opportunity should offer; as in the case cited by Freud[12] of the eight year old girl who openly proclaimed herself as her mother's successor when her mother was absent on occasion from the family table, or in the still more striking case of the four year old child who said:--"Mother can just stay away now; then father will have to marry me and I shall be his wife." Boys experience a similar jealousy towards their father and often come to regard his presence in the family as that of an intruder or interloper who disturbs the otherwise peaceful and loving relations between his mother and himself. This view of the father as intruder is particularly liable to occur if (as so frequently happens) the father is absent from the home for relatively long periods during the working hours of the day or even for several days or weeks on end[13]. Even in the cases where the father is not frequently away from home, his continued presence is sooner or later found to be irksome in the same way as is the mother's in the case of girls, and the desire for his removal will gradually begin to make itself felt, if not in consciousness, at least in the unconscious levels of the mind.
The hate aspect of the Œdipus complex would thus seem normally to arise in the first place as a consequence of the love aspect, the affection felt by the child towards the parent of the opposite sex bringing about a resentment at the presence of the other parent; this latter parent being looked upon as a competitor for the affections of the loved parent and a disturber of the peace of the family circle. But though in its origin the hate aspect is thus usually a secondary phenomenon, it may under suitable conditions grow to equal or even to excel in importance the love aspect from which it in the first place arose. This is especially liable to be the case when, in addition to the specific interference with the love activities of the child, the parent in question causes more general interference with the child's desires and activities, by adopting a harsh, intolerant or inconsiderate attitude towards the child in their everyday relations or as regards matters in which the child's interests and ambitions are more especially concerned. To the envy and jealousy felt towards a competitor and rival there is then added the hatred and desire for rebellion against a tyrant and oppressor; and the complex emotions thus aroused may engender a hostile sentiment of such intensity as, in some cases, to constitute one of the dominant traits of character, not only of childhood but of the whole of adult life.