Jocasta complex

In psychoanalytic theory, the Jocasta complex is the incestuous sexual desire of a mother towards her son.

[1] Raymond de Saussure introduced the term in 1920 by way of analogy to its logical converse in psychoanalysis, the Oedipus complex, and it may be used to cover different degrees of attachment,[2] including domineering but asexual mother love – something perhaps particularly prevalent with an absent father.

The term is a bit of an extrapolation, since in the original story Oedipus and Jocasta were unaware that they were mother and son when they married.

The usage in modern contexts involves a son with full knowledge of who his mother is.

Theodor Reik saw the "Jocasta mother", with an unfulfilled adult relationship of her own and an over-concern for her child instead, as a prime source of neurosis.