In psychoanalytic literature, a Madonna—whore complex is the inability to maintain sexual arousal within a committed, loving relationship. Men with this complex desire a sexual partner who has been degraded the whore while they cannot desire the respected partner the Madonna. Freud argued that the Madonna—whore complex was caused by a split between the affectionate and the sexual currents in male desire.
Whereas the man loves women in the former category, he despises and devalues the latter group. According to this theory, in adulthood the boy-turned-man seeks to avenge these mistreatments through sadistic attacks on women who are stand-ins for mother. It is possible that such a split may be exacerbated when the sufferer is raised by a cold but overprotective mother [7] — a lack of emotional nurturing paradoxically strengthening an incestuous tie.
Another theory claims that the Madonna—whore complex derives from the representations of women as either madonnas or whores in mythology and Judeo-Christian theology rather than developmental disabilities of individual men.
Naomi Wolf considered that the sexual revolution had paradoxically intensified the importance of the virgin—whore split, leaving women to contend with the worst aspects of both images.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Bernstein, A Basic Theory of Neuropsychoanalysis p. The Journal of Sexual Medicine. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis 91 1: A Sacco, Madonna Complex p. Women in the criminal justice system. Joy and the Objects of Psychoanalysis: Literature, Belief, and Neurosis. SUNY series in psychoanalysis and culture. State University of New York Press. Dial "M" for Mother: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, , pp.
