Breast Feeding and Toilet Training Can Mess You Up
Sigmund Freud proposed that human infants were born in a state of polymorphous perversity with an unfocused libidinal drive directed toward any object that might provide sexual satisfaction (Freud, 1952a). Until around the age of six, humans are able to fulfill these sexual needs through any part of their body. Freud laid out three distinct and predicable stages for this early developmental period corresponding to the comportment of the child towards parts of its body, i.e. the mouth, anus and genitalia, referred to as the Oral, Anal and Phallic stages (Freud, 1952a; Santoro et al., 2005). Any unresolved sexual conflicts carried through to the last two stages of psychosexual development, Latency and Genital often results in the development of neuroses (Freud, 1952a). Freud believed adult neuroses were usually the result of the expression of childhood sexual desires and fantasies.
Human Personality (Psyche) and Psychosexual Stages
The development of adult neurosis and the five stages of psychosexual development are tightly entwined with Freud’s theory on the human psyche and it’s three parts: the id, ego and superego (Freud, 1952c). The three-part non-somatic structure of personality is the theoretical construct Freud used to model and explain the interactions of the uncoordinated instinctual drives of the unconscious (id), conscience and moralization (superego) and the conscious mediation between desires of the two (ego). The conflict between the base desires of the id and the person’s super-ego desire to conform to societal norms by controlling or suppressing the instinctual urges is, according to Freud, the genesis of neurosis. Neuroses may manifest in hysteria, obsessiv...
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...s, prescribed birth control devises and told him to find a partner for sex. In contrast, he attributed the neurosis of a young female, Dora, to manipulation by her parents and Dora’s failure to abandon her childhood masturbation. Berger (2014) also demonstrates through the analysis of several case studies that psychological issues including sexual divergences must be examined independently without the application of one all encompassing theory.
Conclusion
Although oft cited, perhaps incorrectly so, as saying, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”, Freud did speak to the early experiences of pleasure and the hedonistic nature of humans in seeking fulfillment of the desires of the id. (Freud, 1952c). “But whoever understands the human mind knows that hardly anything is harder for a man than to give up a pleasure which he has once experienced” (Freud, 1953, p. 145).
Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 to Jewish Galician parents in the Moravian town of Pribor in the Austrian Empire (“Sigmund Freud” n. pag). During his education in the medical field, Freud decided to mix the career fields of medicine and philosophy to become a psychologist (“Sigmund Freud” n. pag). During his research as a psychologist, he conceived the Structural Model Theory, which he discussed in his essay Beyond the Pleasure Principle. The theory states that the human psyche is divided into three main parts: the id, ego, and super-ego (“Id, Ego, and Super-ego” n. pag). He concluded that the id was the desire for destruction, violence and sex; the ego was responsible for intellect and dealing with reality; and the super-ego was a person’s sense of right and wrong and moral standards (Hamilton, n. pag). Freud argued that a healthy individual will have developed the strongest ego to keep the id and super-ego in check (“Id, Ego, and Super-ego” n. p...
Through case study, the psychodynamic approach was developed by Sigmund Freud. Freud visited Charcot’s, a laboratory in Paris investigating people suffering from hysteria. There, Freud began patient case studies (Crain, p. 254). Freud developed 5 stages of human development known as the Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency and Genital stages. The Oral stage is from the ages of birth to 18 months. This stage engages in oral activities such as sucking. Next the Anal stage begins around age 18 months to 3 years of age. Freud suggests that during the Anal stage a child focuses on the pleasure of purging from the rectal area. The Phallic stages, none as the masturbation stage, when a child get’s pleasure from focusing on his genital areas usually happens during ages 3 years to 6 years of age. After the Phallic stage come the Latency stages. Latency is when children at the ages of 6 to 12 years old work to develop cognitive and interpersonal skills suppressing sexual interests but those 12 years and older fall into the Genital stages. During the Genital stage those suppressed sexual interests re-occur and the need to find gratification dependent on finding a partner (Craig & Dunn, p 12)
Sigmund Freud believed that adults seduced children and this is where their problems came up in adulthood. As for all things, many people did not agree with Freud’s theory. “Freud believed that people could be cured by making conscious their unconscious thoughts and motivations, thus gaining insight” (McLeod, “Psychoanalysis”). According to Freud’s Psychoanalytical Theory, there are three elements of personality the id, ego and superego. The id is an individual’s inner child.
Freud emphasized that early childhood experiences are important to the development of the adult personality, proposing that childhood development took place over five stages; oral, anal. Phallic, latent and genital. The phallic stage is the most important stage which contains the Oedipus complex. This is where the child (age 4 - 6 yrs) posses the opposite sex parent and wants rid of the same sex parent. Freud argued that if the conflict is not resolved in childhood then it could cau...
One of Freud’s major research accomplishments was his findings on infant sexuality also known as the Psychosexual Stages. The first stage is the oral stage which is 0-1 years of age. This is the stage where sensual/sexual life begins, in the form of sucking the thumb, biting, and breast suck...
Among those individuals that do not progress in the proper way into the genital phase, can still be playing out the psychodrama in various displaced, abnormal, or exaggerated ways. Primal desires of course can be quickly repressed but even among the mentally sane they could always rise again in dreams and in literature. The most critical conflict that the child must successfully resolve. healthy personality and sexual development and this all occurs during... ...
“Psychological - or more strictly speaking, psychoanalytic -investigation shows that the deepest essence of human nature, which are similar in all men and which aim at the satisfaction of certain needs... [are] self-preservation, aggression, need for love, and the impulse to attain pleasure and avoid pain...” At its simplest form, this quote perfectly explains Sigmund Freud’s theory on human nature. Human beings, according to Freud, are in a constant state of conflict within themselves; trying to satisfy their animalistic instincts, while also maintaining a socially appropriate life. Freud termed these animalistic tendencies that we have, the Id. The Id is essentially our unconscious mind, it is the part of us that has been there since the day we were born and is what drives our life’s needs and desires. The Id simply aims to satisfy our sexual or aggressive urges immediately, without taking into account any further implications. On the other hand, Freud used the term, the Superego, to describe man’s conscience and sense of morality. It is the Superego’s job to keep the Id in check by combatting the desire to satisfy urges with the feeling of guilt or anxiety. Finally, the Ego, is the conscious representation of the constant battle between the Superego and the Id. It must work to satisfy human’s instinctual tendencies while taking into account their conscience and doing what is rational and acceptable. Freud argues that these internal process that are constantly at work in our mind are what shape humans to do the things that they do. Thus, he believes, the goal of human nature is to satisfy our basic aggressive and sexual desires while adhering to cultural and social standards.
Sigmund Freud proposed a theory of psychoanalytic development; he stated that early childhood experiences and practices affect later development in adulthood. Freud’s stages of psychosexual development comprised of five stages: the oral stage (0 – 1 year), the anal stage (1 – 3 years), the phallic stage (3 – 6 years), the latency period (6 – puberty) and the genital stage (puberty –
Sigmund Freud developed the psychosexual stages of development to describe the chronological process of development that took place from birth through later adulthood. The stages of psychosexual are oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital. Freud developed that as children grow they progress from self-pleasing sexual activity to reproductive activity. Through this developmental process one will develop adult personality. Freud put much emphasis on sexual context of how ones libido, which is one sexual desires played a role in each stage of development. Freud emphasizes that individuals will strive to obtain pleasures in each stage of development, which becomes the basis of ones personality.
Developmental psychology is an area of research dedicated to the understanding of child-development. Throughout history many theories have been used to attempt to explain the complex process. Two of those theorists, Freud and Erikson, were instrumental in creating a foundation for child-psychology to build on. From a Freudian perspective, human development is centered on psychosexual theory. Psychosexual theory indicates that maturation of the sex drives underlies stages of personality development. Alternatively, Erikson is considered a neo-freudian scholar who developed psychosocial theory. In Erikson models there are eight major conflicts that occur during the course of an individual’s life.
Sigmund Freud, who introduced the concept of sublimation in modern psychology, defined it as “a process that concerns object-libido and consists in the instinct directing itself towards an aim other than, and remote from, that of sexual satisfaction; in this process the accent falls upon deflection from sexuality.” Freud argues that sublimation originates in suppression, which he describes as the “progenitor of the period of sexual latency” and then leads to redirection. Individuals pursue another activity as a substitute to confronting their sexual desires.
Freud believed that a person’s personality is most influenced by the first three stages of psychosexual development: the oral, anal, and phallic. The development of a person in these three stages occurs between the first five years of his or her life. After he or she go through a latency stage before entering the final stage, also known as the genital stage, which occurs around puberty through adulthood. Erikson agrees with Freud on his theory of infantile sexuality, but disagrees that a person’s personality is only based on that aspect. All of Erikson’s stages are present at birth, in latent form, and gradually unravels according to their social surroundings. According to Manning (1988), “The Identity vs. Role Confusion is the most crucial stage of the developmental process. Adults and peers that the person surrounds themselves with ultimately determines whether or not...
Sexual orientation is a key aspect in any person’s life. The way of life for a gay, lesbian, and all sexual minorities are drastically different than those who are heterosexual. The critical time period for sexual development is in the early stages of childhood. Although childhood is a critical period, many studies have been conducted ranging from those in their twenties and thirties (Carver, Perry, & Egan, 2004). Storms (1981) believes that the content of one’s sexual fantasies that arouses the stimuli of their erotic orientation. Storms (1981) also stated that sexual orientation is a combination of social development and sexual development that takes place during an individual’...
Before I get started I just want to note that this paper made me realize how far I have developed from my childhood and even the beginning of high school. With that said I’m going to describe my own progression through the psychosexual stages of development.
The theory does a good job at delineating the stages of psychosexual development; our childhood has a great influence on our personalities. Referring to Freud’s ‘psychosexual stages’, it is very clear that parents’ role in an infant’s life is the foremost step to structure the personality. Not to forget, the oral and anal stages are focal fundamental to character traits in a person’s behavior. The inner ‘instincts’ of sexuality and aggression meeting with the socially acceptable norms creates a conflict zone, wherein it is decided what we are to do and what we would become.