The Madonna- whore complex is the condition where a man cannot have a sexual desire for the woman he loves (the Madonna) but is sexually attracted to degraded women (whore). A man with this complex may develop love to a specific woman but is unable to be sexually attracted to that woman, whereas he can only satisfy his sexual desires to a promiscuous woman he can't love. In short term this is "love without sex and sex without love".

According to Freud, what causes the complex is rooting from oedipus complex (from Phallic stage), in which the boy showing much affection to his mother. As a man, he will court and love a woman who he sees as similar to his mother but he could not develop a sense of sensuality to her because in his unconscious, it would be incest.

As oppose to Freud's theory, psychoanalyst Richard Tuch explain that the complex is cause not by oedipal-based concept, he says that it is primarily because of a man's hatred to women. When a child is raised by a cold and distant mother, he may develop a sense that he would eventually revenge the mother by being in a sexual relationship to a woman whom he sees similar to his mother but whom he cannot love.

I really think that this complex still applies to and any man who do not grew up normally with proper parent care and all. How about you? What do you think is the real cause of this complex? Do you know someone who suffers from this condition?