Oedipus Rex, Squared

Part I

Oedipus was prominent in Greek Mythology. In all of the tales about him, he had, um, problems. His problems were so remarkable that Sigmund Freud, father of psychiatry, used Oedipus' story to illustrate a psychological disorder.

The Oedipus complex, in psychoanalytic theory, is a group of largely unconscious (dynamically repressed) ideas and feelings which center around the desire to possess the parent of the opposite sex and eliminate the parent of the same sex. ¹

While there is a lot more to the story, among Oedipus' problems were

1. he had a thing for his mother
2. he had some marital problems
3. he took quite literally the admonition "if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out"
4. as a leader of his people, he really sucked; he was the Franklin Pierce Buchanan, XXXXIII (FPB 43) of his time

Tom Lehrer immortalized the whole thing with his satirical song, Oedipus Rex. In part, Lehrer sings (to a tune that sounds suspiciously like a Gilbert and Sullivan² melody)

From the Bible to the popular song,
There's one theme that we find right along.
Of all ideals they hail as good,
The most sublime is Motherhood.

There was a man, oh, who it seems,
Once carried this ideal to extremes.
He loved his mother and she loved him,
And yet his story is rather grim.

There once lived a man named Oedipus Rex.
You may have heard about his odd complex.
His name appears in Freud's index
'Cause he loved his mother.

His rivals used to say quite a bit,
But as a monarch he was most unfit.
But still in all they had to admit
That he loved his mother.

Yes he loved his mother like no other.
His daughter was his sister and his son was his brother.
One thing on which you can depend is,
He sure knew who a boy's best friend is!

When he found out what he had done,
He tore his eyes out one by one.
A tragic end to a loyal son
Who loved his mother.

At this point you're probably thinking that this is just another of my brilliant, witty, informative (I could go on...) writings. Hang in there. There is a point to it.

Part II

It seems that we have a news story³ in which life imitates art.

In 2004, Texan Andre Thomas committed a rather gruesome crime: he murdered his ex and their children, cut out their hearts, and carried the hearts in his pocket for a while. Then he stabbed himself in the chest. No, didn't cut out his own heart. He went to the local gendarmes' offices, and - like a crazy man - turned himself in.

It gets worse.

In jail, before his trial, he gouged out one of his eyes - and ate it. Thomas' attorneys claimed Mr. Thomas had a severe mental illness and couldn't participate in his own defense. The judge said Thomas was competent to stand trial. After Andre's conviction, he was awarded a free visit to, and no-charge services in, the Texas vaccination chamber⁴.

While in prison awaiting execution (and the federally mandated appeals), Thomas similarly had his other eye for a snack. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the conviction and death sentence, thereby denying the argument that Andre Thomas had what some would consider to be a rather enhanced social disorder.

Killing one's ex is not necessarily a sign of mental illness. It's quite common, even among people who do play with a full deck. However, under Texas law it's criminal, but perfectly normal, to play a game involving

• violently murdering his children
• extracting, transporting, trashing all of his victims hearts
• gouging out his own eye
• eating same
• gouging out his other eye
• eating that one (now, THAT is crazy ... except in France where it is a crime to serve one's bulbus oculi unseasoned, unsauced, and raw )

So Texas - true to form - is going to execute someone who is legally blind and badly in need of a fine cookbook (an audio cookbook). The civilized world might also think of Mr. Thomas as loony, if not psycho (medical terms).

While certain parts of Thomas's life resemble Oedipus' life, there is no indication that he wanted to marry his mother. Perhaps that's why the judges - no doubt scholars specializing in Greek Mythology and Freud - found him to be a bit odd, but sane enough for Texas.

¹Oedipus complex

² Gilbert and Sullivan

³ Houston Chronicle 01/10/2009, and other news sources

⁴ He had to get in line. In Texas, the queue is quite long.