His name was Sigmund Freud, and the theory of the Oedipal conflict/attachment wasn't about reproduction, WayoftheLeaf, it was about children's unconscious desire for the parent of the opposite sex, a phase they go through in early childhood and which Freud believed could be the origin of childhood and adult neuroses. Freud was also the one who defined the early childhood phases with names (oral, anal, phallic) and believed that trouble in those phases accounted for different character fixations later in life. According to Papa Freud, Oedipal conflicts arise during the phallic stage of children's development from age 3 to 7.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_complex
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychosexual_development

Oedipal and psychosexual development theory is complex, and much of it is no longer subscribed to in modern psychology, although Freudian psychiatrists and analysts are still heavily invested in most of it. We studied Freud's theories (and many others) earlier this past semester in my medical psychopathology class.