Electra
(pronounced ih-lek-truh)
(1) In
Greek mythology, (also as Elektra or Laodice), any of several mythical women,
most famously as the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra; she incited her
brother Orestes to avenge the death of their father by killing his murderess
Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus.
(2) In Astronomy,
one of the six visible stars in the Pleiades.
(3) A
female given name from Ancient Greek (now rare).
(4) In psychoanalytic
theory, as “Electra
complex”, a young girl's sub-conscious competition with her mother
for her father's affection. Still much
associated Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the term was in 1913 coined by Carl Jung
(1875–1961) but Freud, proprietorial in such matters, added layers to his “Oedipus complex”
(originally detailing a son's sexual attitude towards his mother and
concomitant hostility toward his father) publishing the refinement as the “feminine Oedipus
attitude”. It can (generously)
be interpreted as Freud’s contribution to gender-equality.
First
century BC (of the name, although the literary tradition stretched back several millenia): From the Ancient Greek Ἠλέκτρα (Ēléktra (literally “shining bright)), from ἤλεκτρον
(ḗlektron) (amber) and related to ἠλέκτωρ
(ēléktōr) (shining sun; beaming sun). Although etymologists regard the possibility
as dubious, there may be a connection with the Sanskrit उल्का (ulkā́) (meteor) and/or the Latin Vulcānus (god of fire and metalworking) and the Ancient Greek ἥλιος
(hḗlios) (sun). The ultimate source may even be pre-Greek so
it’s not surprising the exacting lexicographers list the origin as “uncertain”. The Latin noun ēlectra was the nominative/accusative/vocative plural of ēlectrum (from Ancient Greek ḗlektron) and the best known adaptation was electrum (amber; an alloy of gold and
silver, used in Antiquity and now specifically a natural alloy with between 20
and 50 per cent silver (once commonly called “German silver plate). Electra is a proper noun; the noun plural is
Electras (about the only use of the plural form is of sopranos or Buicks).
The
legend of Electra (Ηλέκτρα)
While some
of the myths of Antiquity have a unique storyline and there are characters who
appear in a single role with a known lineage, in many cases the tales are
tangled and figures from one myth may appear in others with different parents
and children. As an example, consider
the literary career of Electra who variously was (1) One of the daughters of
Oceanus and Tethys, who married Thaumas and then gave birth to Iris and to
the Harpies; (2) One of Persephone's companions and was present when she was carried off by
Hades; (3) One of the Pléiades. Zeus
fathered her child Dardanus who left Samothrace and went to the Troad, where he
founded the royal dynasty of Troy. Electra
had another son, Iasion. Electra is also
said to have had a third son, named Emathion, who ruled over Samothrace, but
more frequently this third child of hers by Zeus is named as Harmonia; (4) In the Italian version
of Electra's legend, she was the wife of the Etruscan
King Corythus and Dardanus and
Iasion were born in Italy; (4) Electra is also linked to the legend of the
Palladium. She was later transformed
with her sisters into the constellation of the Pleiades.
Elektra (Frankfurt, 1953).
The 1967 recording of Richard Strauss's (1864–1949) Elektra
with Swedish soprano Birgit Nilsson (1918–2005) and the Wiener Philharmoniker (Vienna Philharmonic
Orchestra) under Hungarian-British conductor, Sir Georg Solti (1912–1997) is
regarded still by many critics as the finest studio recording. Given the virtuosity on show, it's hard to argue but among the opera
cognoscenti there’s a faction that insists Electra's hatreds and lust for vengeance
were never better captured than in the 1953 recording with German soprano Inge
Borkh (1921–2018) and the Sinfonieorchester dem Hessischen Rundfunk (Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra of the state of Hesse), under
German composer and conductor Kurt Schröder (1888–1962), a release noted also for German
mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig's (1928–2021) appearance as first maid. In all the repertoire of opera, Electra is
one of the roles demanding much range from a soprano and listeners can choose
the Electra they prefer: technical ecstasy or thrilling intensity.
Most
famously however she was (6) the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. After Agamemnon was murdered by Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, Electra was treated as a slave, spared
only on the intervention of her mother. In
some accounts Electra saved her brother (the young Orestes) by entrusting him
to their old tutor who took him away from Mycenae. To prevent her giving birth to a son who might
avenge her father, Electra was either married to a peasant who lived far from the city, or,
having been betrothed to Castor and then Polymestor, was imprisoned at Mycenae.
On Orestes' return, she recognized him
at Agamemnon's tomb and played an active part in the assassination
of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. When the Erinyes pursued Orestes for this crime, she devoted
herself to his welfare. In Euripides'
Orestes she fought at her brother's side against the local populace who wanted the murderers condemned to death. Electra
was the main character in Sophocles' (now lost) Aletes: when Orestes and Pylades went to
Tauris, rumours started at Mycenae that they had died, and that Electra's
sister Iphigenia had killed Orestes. Aegisthus's
son Aletes assumed the throne and Electra went to Delphi, where she met
Iphigenia who had gone there with Orestes. Electra was about to blind her when she saw
her brother. Electra and Orestes
returned to Mycenae and killed Aletes. Electra
married Pylades and went with him to Phocis; their children
were Medon (3) and Strophius.
Electracy
Actor
Carmen Electra (stage name of Tara Leigh Patrick, b 1972) and Lindsay Lohan (b
1986), The Art of Elysium Launches Betty and Veronica Apparel Line in
Association with Miramax Films and Archie Comics, Beverly Hills, California,
May 2004.
Electracy is
the “skill and
facility necessary to exploit the potential of modern electronic media”,
a idea that has come to attract more attention after the disclosures of AI (Artificial
Intelligence) systems “going rogue”,
something of interest not only because of the reported events but the suspicion
there have likely been many more “undisclosed
incidents”. First appearing in Teletheory (1989), the concept of electracy
was constructed by US literary theorist Professor Gregory Ulmer (b 1944, then
holding the chair in the Department of English at the University of Florida and
a professorship of Electronic Languages and Cybermedia at the European Graduate
School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland) and it appeared at a time when the internet
had expanded beyond the US. What had
come to be known as the internet (until circa 2016 often with an initial
capital) had been restricted mostly to universities, the military and some
government agencies but by the late 1980s it had extended to research
institutions in the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan but looked
nothing like whate the www (world wide web) would transform it to in the
following decade. According to Professor
Ulmer, electracy was “to digital media what literacy is to print”,
the concept encompassing the broader cultural, institutional, pedagogical, and
ideological implications inherent in “…the
major societal transition from print to electronic media”. A portmanteau word, the construct was electr(icity)
+ trac(e) + -y with “trace” used in the sense made famous by French philosopher
Jacques Derrida (1930-2004). Trace was a
core concept in Derridian deconstruction; it denoted the principle that every
sign, word, or present experience carries within it the mark of what it is
absent, not present, and different from itself.
Instead of meaning coming from a pure, self-contained origin or a direct
connection to reality, the trace means that every “present meaning” is already
inhabited by the “ghost” of other “past and future signs”. Unlike some of the concepts from
deconstruction and other forks of postmodernism, la trace could, at the definitional level, be understood by most.
Jung,
Freud and the Electra complex
The pioneers
of psychoanalysis gathered at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, September
1909. Front Row (left to Right): Sigmund Freud, Granville Stanley Hall (1844–1924)
& Carl Jung. Back Row (left to right):
Sándor Ferenczi (1873–1933), Ernest Jones (1879–1958) & Abraham Arden Brill
(1874–1948).
The group photograph was shot during a conference on psychology hosted by Dr Hall, then president of Clark University and the first in the US to earn a doctorate in the discipline. Although even then psychoanalysis was established in the US, the conference would prove a landmark and trigger not only a wealth of publications but also the legitimization of the field to the extent departments of psychology began to proliferate in US institutions. This was Freud's only trip
to the US, a place where his influence would for generations be profound but, within half a decade, his estrangement from Jung had begun, producing the
profession’s most famous schism that to some extent endures to this day. Although in
the public consciousness Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) does seem to loom over psychiatry
and his theories continue to flavour
the writing of at least some clinicians and academics, the editors of the APA's
(American Psychiatric Association) DSM (Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) have moved on and in mainstream
contemporary psychiatry, the Freudian “feminine
Oedipus attitude” seems to be regarded primarily as a historical
psychoanalytic concept rather than an acknowledged human developmental process
or a psychiatric diagnosis. It was Carl
Jung (1875–1961) who coined the term “Electra complex” and explicitly Freud rejected it, not because he dismissed the notion but because his original
conception was of his “Oedipus complex”
as something applicable to both sexes and it was only later he constructed a
more intricate model of female psychosexual development, thus the need for his
term: “feminine Oedipus attitude”.
Electra Receiving the Ashes of her
Brother, Orestes
(circa 1927). oil on canvas by Jean-Baptiste Joseph Wicar (1762–1834),
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.
In Freud’s
construct of female development: (1) the mother was the primary love object
until (2) the child discovers the anatomical difference between the sexes, thus
developing (3) what Freud styled “penis envy”, leading her to (4) blame her
mother for rendering her with what she perceives as a “deficiency”, something
that compelled her to (5) shift her affections towards her father meaning she
(6) became her mother’s competitor for the father’s affection before (7) eventually
identifying with her mother and accepting the defined “feminine role”. Freud seems not to have commented on whether
he was annoyed by Jung’s “Electra complex” becoming one of the most popular
pieces of jargon to leak from the profession to popular discourse but he’d made
clear his thoughts, writing in From the
History of an Infantile Neurosis (the Wolfman case history) (1918) that he
saw “no
progress or advantage” in introducing the term and did not advocate
its use. That presumably was a
clinician’s considered view though there’s no reason to suspect Austrian
neurologists are any less prone than the rest of us to professional jealousy and
in little more than a decade his position significantly had shifted; by 1931
Freud was arguing the pre-Oedipal attachment of girls to their mothers was much
more important in than his earlier formulations had suggested. So, although among Freudians, neo-Freudians
and the wider community, his particular take on the Electra complex retains a
following, the theory wasn’t a single, fixed proposition.
The Return of Orestes (from Electra by
Sophocles) (1782), oil on canvas by John Downman (1749–1824), National Trust
Collections, Hinton Ampner, Alresford.
The figure at the far left is Charles James Fox (1749–1806), a British
Whig statesman whose career in politics endured for some four decades; he’s
best remembered for his part in the Fox-North coalition government (April-December
1883 with Lord North (1732-1792)), dismissed by a then not quite mad George III
(1738–1820; King of the UK 1760-1820) after the loss of the American colonies. The episode was of note in the development of
Westminster parliamentary conventions because the coalition had taken office despite
the king’s opposition and when George III a few months later took the opportunity
to “clear out
that rotten crew”, it would be the last time the sovereign’s reserve
powers would be invoked to sack a prime minister until in 1975 Sir John Kerr
(1914–1991; Governor-General of Australia 1974-1977) sundered the commission of
Gough Whitlam (1916–2014; Prime Minister of Australia 1972-1975), proving the
royal prerogative still existed (although paradoxically perhaps now only in the
hands of a monarch’s representative rather than their own). There had been William IV’s (1765–1837; King
of the UK 1830-1837) in 1834 dismissing Lord Melbourne (1779–1848; prime
minister of the UK 1834 & 1835-1841) but historians seem to treat that more
as a “gentlemen’s agreement” and most of those few Australians who by 1975 much
thought about such things probably believed the days of meddling viceroys were
done.
Fox’s other (and far-reaching)
contribution to political evolution was that in refusing to serve in the
administration of Lord Shelburne (1737-1805; Prime Minister of the UK
1782–1783), he accelerated the morphing of the Tory faction into a formalized
party and no prime minister since Shelburne has attempted to govern without the
support of a party. In the literature,
the relationship between George III and Fox often was described as “mutual antipathy”
but “mutual hatred” better describes
things and there have been few loathings so well documented as public knowledge,
the king in a letter to North as early as 1775 saying of Fox he had: “…cast off every
principle of common honour and honesty ... [a man who is] as contemptible
as he is odious ... [and has an] aversion to all restraints.” It was deeply personal view because the king
attributed this dissolute lifestyle of his son and heir (George IV (1762–1830)
King of the UK 1820-1830) to Fox’s corrosive influence. Despite that, Fox’s appearance in the
painting was likely playful rather than political, the artist often including
public figures in his works with no overt purpose; Downman was not a “political
artist”.
Despite’s
Freud’s place in the history of the profession and his continue presence within
factions in mainstream psychiatric science, in the “standard” diagnostic
literature (the DSM & the WHO's (World Health Organization’s) ICD
(International Classification of Diseases)), there are only traces of his
legacy. The DSM-5-TR (2022) is the APA’s
most comprehensive diagnostic classification system yet and it includes no
mention of the Electra complex, feminine Oedipus complex, penis-envy syndrome,
or Oedipal developmental stage, either as diagnoses or as elements in diagnostic
criteria and that reflects the path of the modern (ie post 1980) DSM’s
evolution as concepts not technically diagnoses came gradually to be removed or
renamed, the framework shifting from the classic psychoanalytic explanations of
psychopathology Freud, Jung and others had pioneered in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries. That doesn’t
imply parent–child attachment, identification, rivalry and such has been
downgraded in importance, indeed the volume of literature would suggest the
opposite; it means just that modern developmental psychology studies these
things extensively but generally without Freud's specific (and still famous) assumptions. Less well-known than the DSM, the APA also
publishes a psychology dictionary in which the Oedipus complex is discussed as
a concept of classical psychoanalytic theory, noting that contemporary
psychoanalytic thinking substantially has reduced its centrality and instead focuses
more on empirical findings about earlier mother–child relationships.
Electra and the Chorus
bearing vessels for libation on the tomb of Agamemnon (undated), illustration
from The Choephori by Aeschylus
(circa 525-circa 456 BC), pencil, pen and ink on paper by John Flaxman
(1755–1826), an English sculptor and draughtsman in the neoclassical tradition,
Royal Academy of Arts, London.
In modern
parlance all that might suggest “Freud was cancelled by the DSM”. That would be overstating things but it’s
true than prior to the DSM-III (1980), the earlier editions (DSM-I (1952) &
DSM-II (1968)) conceptualized mental disorders predominantly in psychodynamic
terms with psychoanalytic concepts consequently afforded some prominence
although despite the emphasis, neither the Oedipus or Electra complexes were ever
listed in the DSM as a diagnosis; they were theoretical explanations of
personality development and psychopathology rather than a disorder with
diagnostic criteria. It was in DSM-III the
change really began, the editors deliberately moving psychiatric classification
toward operationalized diagnostic criteria and away from competing
psychodynamic theories, one consequence being explicit mention of the Oedipal
theories disappeared from the DSM's diagnostic architecture; the threads could
still be detected but that required prior knowledge, a not unreasonable
assumption given the publication at the time tended circulate mostly within the
profession; its high public profile would come later. Psychoanalysis however has not disappeared and
there are psychoanalytic theorists who continue to use Oedipal language meaning
the concepts not infrequently appear in the literature although that does not
imply modern psychiatry universally has empirically validated Freud's theory.
So if “Freud was cancelled” is the wrong
phrase, it’s necessary to nominate one better and either “somewhat restricted” or “much
diminished” better capture what happened (certainly if what’s being
discussed is the DSM rather than psychiatry or psychotherapy as a whole). Prior to the DSM-III, disorders commonly were
described in terms of underlying psychological mechanisms and conflicts,
emphasizing the primacy of psychoanalytic theory as an important influence in
both DSM-I & DSM-II. It was DSM-III
that was the watershed in that it built the framework upon which all subsequent
editions have been constructed, up to the current DSM-5-TR. A major break from what had been established
(reflecting a generational change in the profession), DSM-III introduced
explicit operational diagnostic criteria and deliberately adopted an approach
intended to be neutral concerning etiology (the establishment of a cause,
origin, or reason for something). Henceforth,
the DSM would describe what a disorder looked like rather than discuss theories
explaining why it manifested.
Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual, Third Edition
(PDM-3, 2026). The PDM is less popular
with a general readership because it focuses on “why we’re mad” while the DSM defines exactly “how we’re mad” and offers hints on what to do about it. The PDM is however useful for those who (in
themselves or others) detect madness but wish to determine just when &
why the instability began. However,
just because Freud's metapsychology ceased explicitly to appear in the DSM’s organizing
framework doesn’t mean Freud has no influence on contemporary psychiatry; a
number of the concepts he developed or modified have, to varying degrees,
survived including unconscious processes; defense mechanisms; transference and
countertransference; the importance of early relationships; attachment and
interpersonal development and (vitally) the idea that psychological processes
can operate outside conscious awareness.
As that implies, much modern work has been built Freudian concepts that
became mainstream orthodoxy. What
happened was those concepts have been reformulated or interpolated into broader
psychological theories, rather than being accepted simply because Freud
proposed them and, in a nod to Freud’s seminal role, there is now the PDM (Psychodynamic
Diagnostic Manual, first published in 2006 and now in its third edition (2026))
which, able to be read as a complement to the DSM or a stand-alone title, deliberately
incorporates psychodynamic concepts.
That the DSM & PDM peacefully can co-exist does indicate why it’s at
least misleading to speak of Freud being “cancelled”; it was more that the DSM
was becoming a different sort of publication and Freud needed a new home.
Buick
Electra
1973 Buick
Electra 225 Custom Four-door Hardtop.
Richard Nixon's (1913-1994; VPOTUS 1953-1961 and POTUS 1969-1974) last full-year in office, 1973 was the last “good year” of the old US economy but events in the
Middle East that October would trigger the first oil shock and legislation
would impose on cars battering-ram like bumpers and crude emission control
devices that impaired driveability reduced power and increased fuel consumption. It’s remarkable behemoths like the Electra
lasted another three seasons. Over six
generations, GM’s (General Motors) Buick division produced the Electra between 1959
and 1990. For its whole existence the
Electra was the flagship of division’s full-size line and, at various points,
was available with just about every style of coachwork Detroit offered in the
era including two & four-door hardtops, four door sedans, two door
convertibles and five door station wagons.
While there were no four-door convertibles, or station wagons with
two-doors or in hardtop configuration, some coach-builders used also the
platform as the basis of ambulances, limousines or hearses. The best-known of the breed was the Electra
225 that gained its name from being an impressive 225 inches (5.715 m) in
length and while dimensions continue commonly to be used as product
descriptions in many industries, explicit mention of length does seem rare in
cars although allusions were once common (SWB, LWB, EWB, an appended “L” etc).
The Maybach revival used “57” (5.7 m long) & “62” (6.2 m) and some of the
Land Rovers were designated according to the wheelbase in inches (88, 110 etc);
there was the Ford GT40 but that was about height. The classic Electra 225s (they wouldn’t always
measure 225 inches stem to stern but the name stuck) were built on the GM
corporate C platform and although part of the “great down-sizing” in 1977, it
retained the RWD (rear-wheel-drive) configuration until 1985 when, along with
the equivalent ranges built by Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Pontiac & Chevrolet,
the “full-size” lines shifted to FWD (front-wheel-drive). The most famous Electra 225 was a 1966
four-door hardtop in which the actor Jayne Mansfield (1933–1967) was killed
after the car slammed into the back of a stationary truck; the protective “Mansfield bars” on trucks are
named after her. Because of the name, it
was used for the Buick Electra E5, a battery electric mid-size crossover SUV
manufactured since 2023 in China by SAIC-GM under the Buick brand.
Powered clamshell tailgate on 1971 Buick Estate Wagon. The 1971 Estate used the Electra platform and was Buick's first full-sized station wagon since 1953. It was a very cool feature.
A footnote
in the Electra’s history is the powered clamshell tailgate used on the Estate
Wagon between 1971 and 1976. Built on a 127 inch (3.23 m) wheelbase, the Estate Wagons truly were large machines and the clamshell tailgate
appeared on all GM’s big wagons in the era, the novelties being the powered rear
glass sliding up into the roof as the tailgate slid into a recess under the cargo
floor; very cool. The power tailgate (the first
ever seen on station wagons) was operated by switches on the instrument panel
or a key switch on the rear quarter panel but while wagons had the powered
glass, the powered tailgate was optional and, if the manual version, there was
a small handle on the tailgate and an additional chrome “ring” with “flippers”
around the keyhole. The apparatus
operated by turning the key to raise the glass into the roof cavity with the
tailgate lowered by turning the chrome ring.
A clever design of the type engineers really would have enjoyed
perfecting, the tailgate used counter-weights of sizes & springs of tension (a la garage doors) calculated exactly to allow the structure to drop under the force of
gravity while demanding only a light action manually to raise it; it was
a case-study in the difference between mass & weight (mass x gravity). Although heavy and intricate, the system
proved admirably reliable but the design wasn’t carried over to the new
generation of smaller station wagons because, in the unforgiving new world, there was a quest to reduce weight
in the hunt for improved fuel economy and lower exhaust emissions.
Lockheed
Electra
TEAL
Lockheed L-188 Electra ZK-TEB 1963 (left) & 1965 (right). The TEAL livery was retained when the
corporate name was changed in 1965, the aircraft not immediately re-painted,
“Air New Zealand” replacing “TEAL JET PROP” on the fuselage as required by the
rules of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (better known as the “Chicago Convention” (1944).
The airline
TEAL (Tasman Empire Airways Limited) emerged from the Tasman Sea Agreement, an
intergovernmental treaty between the Australia, New Zealand and the UK,
concluded in London early in 1940. The
purpose of the operation was to provide for the trans-Tasman traffic of
passengers, cargo and mail, something disrupted by the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945). In the manner of a number of
wartime agreements, the treaty contained a sunset clause stipulating a
termination within three months of the end of the war with Germany but such was
the state of post-war civil aviation that arrangements were carried over, the pre-war
practices not returning to the trans-Tasman route until 1954. As part of that re-organization, the
shareholdings, previously spread between the New Zealand
Government (20%), Union Airways (19%), BOAC (38%) and Qantas (23%), were
dissolved and the two governments assumed co-ownership until 1961 when both
decided to maintain separate national carriers, TEAL and Qantas, the
relationship having been strained since the Australians had insisted TEAL order
the turboprop Lockheed Electra to maintain fleet standardization with Qantas
while the New Zealanders wanted to upgrade to jets. In 1965, TEAL was re-named Air New Zealand.
Two
Lockheed P-3 Orions of the Japanese SDF (Self-Defense Force), on anti-submarine patrol over the Sea of Japan.
The
naming of the sea is contested. Japan asserts
“Sea of Japan” has since the early 1800s been the internationally accepted term
while the RoK (Republic of Korea (South Korea)) claims “East Sea” predates the
period of Japanese colonial rule and the DPRK (Democratic Republic of Korea
(North Korea)) Korea advocates use of “East Sea of Korea”. Unlike the Electra L-188 on which it was based, the
Orion proved a great commercial success and between 1960-1990 over 750 were
built, the aircraft adopted by over 20 countries; some remain in service. The distinctive “tail “stinger” is a “MAD
boom”, used for the magnetic anomaly detection (MAD) of submarines. Re-cycling
a name the company had in the 1930s used for a smaller airliner, US
manufacturer Lockheed between 1957-1961 built 170 Electra L-188s, the first large
turboprop airliner built in the US. With
a number of unique design features that made it suitable for use on short
runways or airfields located at high altitudes, there should have been great
scope for international sales but a combination of two well-publicized crashes
(caused by a design fault in the engine-mounts) and the new generation of jet
aircraft suppressed demand meaning production ended a decade earlier than
planned. Ironically, whether in
passenger service or as the freighters many were later converted into, the
Electra proved robust, reliable and provided stellar service to many operators
as late as the 1990s, the airframe also serving as the basis for the Lockheed
P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft that saw service with many nations. The Electra’s darkest chapter was that a
flight of three was purchased by the military junta that between 1976-1983
ruled Argentina and, during the “Dirty War” (1974-1973) the three flew missions
to dump some of the detenidos-desaparecidos
(detained-disappeared), political opponents of the regime, of which there may
have been as many as 25,000) into the South Atlantic Ocean. The Argentine Navy’s Electra’s proved ideal
for the gruesome task because they were configured with wide cargo doors.
