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Recommended: Essays on Aesthetics
Robert Oshodin
Quest for Values
Dr. Osman
May 28th , 2014
Søren Kierkegaard Sigmund Freud
I
Kierkegaard is critical of the aesthetic life due to the fact that it is a simple concern of daily tasks and other pleasures such as art, music, or literature; it is a way to escape any kind of proper responsibility or commitment. The aesthete only lives for themselves and has little to no concern about how the impact society. Kierkegaard critique stems from his belief that there are only three stages of life. First is the Aesthetic stage, second is the ethical stage, and third is the religious one. Each stage enables a gradual progress to the point where the individual can achieve more, rather than remaining stagnant in the first stage of solely seeking aesthetic pleasures. Boredom remains a major obstacle for the aesthete simply because all they desire is pleasure, whether it be physical, emotional or psychological. When they are “bored”, this means the excitement that they once felt has been drained; what had once before quenched their desire no longer has the same effect because they have become accustomed to it. This is a problem because pleasure is the aesthete’s primary objective. If this drive is unfulfilled then, to an extent, their life becomes dull and monotonous. The way to deal with this boredom is to juggle between pleasures. For example, an aesthete may enjoy playing the violin and shift to painting. In this way, the aesthete does not have lasting periods of boredom will not have a reason to consider their lives dull. Instead they fluctuate through hobbies and find excitement by whatever means necessary. Seducing someone would terrorize us enough to realize that the aesthetic life is essentially brought about through our ...
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...ual tendencies by repressing them. He claims that this will be better for society and allow for better coexistence between people. Freud used free association so that we would be able to relate anything which came into our mind, regardless of how irrelevant or embarrassing. By just stating whatever is on one’s mind Freud was able to find what we are like and further analyze the root of our problems. He believed that we would eventually verbalize what our unconscious mind was storing and he would then be able to treat us. Freud stated that the Oedipus complex is essential for maturation. It is a process that must occur in males and (Electra complex) in females. It is critical for the child to identify with being in competition with other males and a fixation for mating with females during this stage. If they do not then they may become homosexual or pedophiles etc.
How to live one’s life is a question faced by any human being with relatively normal cognitive functioning. Some find beauty in every day life, reveling in something as simple as the gentle shaking of leaves dancing to the whispered song of the wind, or waking up to someone they have decided to spend the rest of their lives with. Others only see the mundane and the tedious, growing bitter and resentful as a relentless existential crisis latches on to the deepest parts of their psyche, casting a grim and ominous shadow over every thought and action. This probing question of how to live is at the forefront of Soren Kierkegaard’s “Either/Or: A Fragment of Life.” The aforementioned views are, indeed, reflected in the fragmented perspectives provided by Kierkegaard’s fictional characters, “A” and “Judge Wilhelm,” who perhaps reflect Kierkegaard’s own divided views. Love and companionship are at the crux of how to live for both A and Wilhelm, despite the glaring contrast between A’s calls for a hedonistic,
Freud has multiple known theories all describing the unconsciousness, the human defense mechanism, the clinical conversation between patients and psychoanalyst, and most prominently he discussed about sexual desire. He explained sexual desire as the key motivating energy for humans, and he discussed about its magnitude. On the same topic of sexual desire, Freud also discussed about homosexuality and how it’s acquired (Freud’s View of Homosexuality, 2013). Sigmund Freud discussed the concept of homosexuality as deterministic. According to Feud, human beings are born with unfocused sexual libidinal d...
of sexual urges. Freud did note however, that social agents such as parents should be
Sigmund Freud was the first of six children to be born into his middle class, Jewish family. His father was a wool merchant, and was the provider for the family. From the time Freud was a child, he pondered theories in math, science, and philosophy, but in his teens, he took a deep interest in what he later called psychoanalysis. He wanted to discover how a person's mind works, so he began to explore the conscious and unconscious parts of one's psyche. Freud's parents and siblings were directly involved in allowing him to pursue this unexplored area of psychology. He was given his own room so that he could study his books in silence, and was only disturbed when it was time to eat. Freud eventually married Martha Bernays. She was cooperative and completely subservient to her husband. She was simply filling a role that the society during that time insisted was proper for all women. Freud himself derived his attitudes toward women and his beliefs about the roles of individual sexes from personal experiences in the strict culture of the time. In the middle to late eighteen hundreds, Central European society distinguished clearly between the roles of men and women. Cultural norms dictated that men be responsible for work outside of the home, and the financial well being of the family, while the women's responsibilities were in the home and with the children. With these specific gender roles came the assumption of male dominance and female submission. Females were pictured as serene, calm, creatures that were lucky to have the love and protection of their superior husbands. It is in this form of the family where most children first learn the meaning and practice of hierarchical, authoritarian rule. Here is where they l...
Interestingly, however, within just a year of publishing this controversial article, Freud appeared to be having doubts about his theory. In a letter to close friend, Wilhelm Fliess, Freud wrote that a “great secret has been slowly dawning on me in the last few months,” (Gleaves & Hernandez, 1999). Reportedly, the great secret was that Freud no longer believed in his theory and was attempting to reorganize his theory on hysteria to better suit the evidence and research he had collected (Gleaves & Hernandez, 1999). In his new theory, which would eventually spawn what the psychological community recognizes as the Oedipus Complex, Freud argued that hysteria was caused by repressed memories of sexual fantasies, not memories of actual sexual abuse or trauma as he once believed (Gleaves & Hernandez, 1999).
According to Freud, sexual desire is the center of everything. Every action we take and every word we speak has an underlying, perhaps subconscious, sexual theme as its driving force. The first stage in Freud's Oedipus Complex is the oral stage. In the example given by Tom Davis, an English professor at Birmingham University, "the child is in a state of sexual bliss: at the mother's breast, receiving nourishment, in a sexual relationship not only with his mother, but, he thinks, the whole world." After the oral stage comes the anal stage: in this stage the child learns that he cannot always do what he wants when he wants to. Eventually the child reaches the genital stage, that is, he becomes aware of his own penis. About this time, he also realizes that girls don't have penises and irrationally concludes that they have been castrated by Daddy to prevent...
Wilson, Sarah. "Sigmund Freud and the oedipal complex." The Observer”. Guardian News and Media, 8 Mar. 2009. Web. 1 May 2014. <http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/08/sigmund-freud-oedipal-complex>.
middle of paper ... ... He forgets about the impossible, and being immortal and being alone, but rather embraces the temporary and exhilarating. Keats presents his feelings on how he no longer wishes for impossible goals, and how it is much more preferable to enjoy life as much as possible. It is of no use longing for things we cannot have, and so we must learn to live with the myriad of things we already have, of which one in particular appeals to Keats: the warmth of human companionship and the passion of love.
Sigmund freud hypothesised the theory of psychoanalyse to treat the symptoms of neurosis and mental illness. Freud “contradicted and in some ways, reversed the prevailing opinions of the learned as well as the common people on many issues of human existance and culture”(Wollheim 1995 p9) Freud gave the common man the opportunity to question thoughts and analyse their own needs and desires through their unconcious. (Lear 2005). Freud's beyond the pleasure principle writings (1920) and later in his The Ego and the ID (1923), stressed the importance of the unconcious and how the mind was built upon a tripartite structure of the ID, Ego and Super-ego. Freud believed that the ID, a biological component of the personality concentrated on the pleasure principle. Freud described this as “everything that is inherited, that is present at birth, that is laid down in the consitution” (freud 1923 p61) freud hypothesises that these are instinctual and that impulses should be satisfied instantly, irrespective of the conseqence. Freud believed that the Ego mind aimed to control the ID by being logical in thought, aiming to mediat...
The largely significant psychologist in the twentieth century, Sigmund Freud, founded analysis and also recognized a new organization for treating behavior disorders. His study in psychology brought out many radical and contentious views on human behavior. One of the view he maintained is that unseen layers in the child's mind are vibrant by sexual and hostile motive regarding its parents. A distinctive example is the Oedipus complex, consisting of sexual need toward the parent of the opposed sex and jealous loathing of the rival.
Freud’s theory of development was based on the assumption that development is influenced by sexual drives. Freud proposed his theory of psychosexual development in his paper “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality” originally published in 1905 which was later translated to English in 1962. He theorized that from birth, humans have an instinctual sexual energy (i.e. libido) which is a significant component of personality development. Freud’s psychosexual development theory consists of five linear stages which spans across the entire lifespan. Each of these stages are characterized by a specific erogenous zone which is at the crux of the conflict of in the developmental stage (Freud, 1962). Freud (1962) believed that the erogenous zones involved in development are the mouth, the anus, and the genital region. The conflicts and behaviors in each of the psychosexual stages are closely associated with these erogenous areas. As Freud’s developmental theory is linear, a child is unable to progress to the next stage – i.e. unable to focus on the sexual energy associated with the primary erogenous zine of the next stage (Freud, 1962). The conflict central to the psychosexual stage must be resolved in order for an individual to move on to the following stage. According to Freud (1962), successful resolution of each of these stages involves expenditure of sexual energy. Freud (1962) theorized that the more energy used to overcome the conflict of a psychosexual stage leads to characteristics/ traits/ behaviors of that stage lasting through adulthood. He believed any lasting characteristics/ traits/ behaviors are what may underlie personality and psychopathology in adulthood (Freud, 1962)...
Kierkegaard, a highly regarded philosopher of the 19th century, put to us the idea of living life in three different stages. He named these stages the Aesthetical, the Ethical and the Religious. He himself passed through each of the stages in his own lifetime and he adopted them as his own philosophy of human existence. The first two stages are characterized by a distinct set of beliefs and behaviors that are easily identified, whereas the last stage, the religious is characterized by a highly personal, subjective and non-rational ‘’leap of faith’’. The ideal is to progress from the aesthetical to the ethical, finally reaching the religious stage but as Kierkegaard himself realized, it is possible to regress or go back a stage. He said that he felt that he had never really left the first two, these stages were always there. He believed that one can move in and out and through all three stages within a lifetime. For the purpose of this essay I will explain each of the three stages in order to give an understanding of Kierkegaard’s philosophical theory of life. Also I will discuss why Kierkegaard considered the religious stage as the best kind of life for humanity and I will present to you some criticisms against Kierkegaard’s third stage.
Many psychologists have analyzed homosexual individuals throughout the history of psychology and attempted to explain their behavior. Freud considered a homosexual individual to have suffered from the Oedipus complex during childhood without proper identification with the opposite sex parent. Lesbians tend to have a negative attitude towards their mother, stating that they are not understanding, very critical, dominating, and uncaring of their aspirations. The homosexual female was disrespectful, and would not compromise or submit to the mother’s desires (Podder, & De, 2011). The lack of identification led the individual to develop maladjusted behaviors and desires towards the same sex. The oedipal stage massively contributes to the development of sexual orientation (Podder & De, 2011). The individual would develop homosexual tendencies and behaviors without proper completion of the stage. Development would be hindered from this early stage and would affect the other stages throughout development. Personality in gay and lesbians would be affected by the improper or incomplete development at such an early stage. Development during the oedipal stage is critical in shaping personality, especially sexual orientation (Podder & De, 2011). Freud believed that homosexual men would relate with the mother while lesbians would identify wit...
(B) The child eventually represses these desires as they feel threatened by the parent of the same sex and experience castration anxiety. They are afraid of challenging the father, and see themselves as powerless. (C) When the child identifies with the father, they become one with the aggressor and understand the father’s role. As a result, the child gets. A conscience and their father’s moral values. This must take place to overcome the Oedipal complex. (D) Freud claims the female Oedipal complex is a result of penis envy. (C) Penis envy leads to lifelong feelings of inadequacy for not having a penis. It causes her to want to share her father’s penis, resulting in an Oedipal/Electra complex that is never fully resolved. This leads to “female emotions” and a lack of a “full” personality
Freud believed that humans develop through stages based on particular erogenous zones. Freud theorized that to gain a healthy personality as an adult, a person would have to successfully complete a certain sequence of five stages. Within the five stages of Freud’s psychosexual development theory, Freud assumed there would be major consequences if any stage was not completed successfully. The stages, in order, were the oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic stage, the latency stage, and the genital stage. In general, Freud believed that an unsuccessful completion of any stage would make a person become fixated on that particular stage. The outcome would lead the person to either over indulge or under indulge the failed stage during adulthood. Freud truly believed that the outcomes of the psychosexual stages played a major part in the development of the human personality. Eventually, these outcomes would become different driving forces in every human being’s personality. The driving forces would determine how a person would interact with the world around them. The results from Freud’s theory about the stages of psychosexual development led Freud to create the concept of the human psyche; Freud’s biggest contribution to