Mother's boy

Mother's boy, also mummy's boy or mama's boy, is a slang term for a man seen as excessively attached to his mother at an age at which he is expected to be independent (e.g. live on his own, be economically independent, be married or about to be married). Use of this phrase is first attested in 1901.[1]

In classical Freudian psychoanalytic theory, the term Oedipus complex denotes a child's desire to have sexual relations with the parent of the opposite sex. Sigmund Freud wrote that a child's identification with the same-sex parent is the successful resolution of the Oedipus complex.[2][3] This theory came into the popular consciousness in America in the 1940s, when sociologists and psychiatrists posited that mothers who were either too close or too distant could hamper the psycho-social development of male children, causing any number of conditions such as autism, asthma, schizophrenia, and homosexuality.[4]

The term mama's boy has a connotation of effeminacy and weakness.

See also

References
  1. "EtymOnline". Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  2. Charles Rycroft A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (London, 2nd Ed. 1995)
  3. Joseph Childers, Gary Hentzi eds. Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995)
  4. van den Oever, Roel (Sep 24, 2012). Mama's Boy: Momism and Homophobia in Postwar American Culture. Springer. ISBN 1137295082. Retrieved 29 January 2020.


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