Icarus complex Icarus complex The Icarus complex is a term in psychoanalysis and personality theory first used by Henry A. Murray to describe a particular type of over-ambitious character. Psychosynthesis has applied it to those in whom spiritual ambition exceeds their personality limits, leading to a backlash. Icarus was a Greek mythological figure who tried to escape imprisonment in Crete with his father Daedalus, using wings Daedalus crafted out of feathers and wax. Daedalus warned Icarus not too fly too close to the sun or too low to the sea. Overwhelmed with the excitement of flying, Icarus flew much too high, and
Mystery of the Wax Museum off the police, but is finally gunned down. He falls into a giant vat of wax which was intended for Charlotte. Charlotte is saved when Ralph moves away the table she is strapped to from where the wax is about to pour onto her. When Florence reports her story to her editor, Jim, he proposes to her. Having to choose between money (Winton) and happiness (Jim), she picks the latter. The film is based on an unpublished short story, "The Wax Works", by Charles S. Belden, who had also written a play called "The Wax Museum", which had been optioned