Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality Freud has always been on of my favorite theorist, He was never afraid to think outside the box and propose something unimaginable. Freud, as a psychosexual analyst had a very unique way of looking at humans and their actions. According to Freud 's theories, everyone 's actions were driven by a sexual desire whether it was suppressed or not. While Freud did focus a lot on the sexual drive behind people 's actions, his Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality focused on sexual aberrations rather than normality. The essays covered a wide spectrum of topics including: sexual object, sexual aim, and many perversions. The perversions Freud covered in his essays include: inversion, fetishism, sadism and masochism, anal intercourse, use of the oral mucus membranes and pedophilia. Each perversion was intensely explored and explained. Freud 's sole purpose of his three essays was to bring light to the different aberrations that exist and deem them as normal or an actual aberration. While many of the perversions mentioned in the essay were …show more content…
It is only exceptionally that children are the exclusive sexual objects in such a case. they usually come to play that part when someone who is cowardly or has become impotent adopts them as a substitute, or when an urgent instinct (one which will not allow of postponement) cannot at the moment get possession of anymore appropriate object”. (Freud, 96) Freud’s basically states in his essay that pedophilia is acceptable if the child is used as an exclusive sexual object, and that children are only used as sexual objects if there is no other options. Freud also continues on to tell the type of individuals that use children as sexual objects, he explains these individuals as cowardly or impotent, which basically gives them an excuse to use
Sigmund Freud is considered to be one of the most studied and respected historical figures in psychology. Freud has had a huge impact on the way we think today. He also is responsible for creation psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud is even known as the “father of psychoanalysis”. Through endless contentious theories such as, the Case of Anna O, the Unconscious Mind, the Psyche, and the most infamous of his theories, the Psychosexual stage, Freud has generated many fans and supporters. His works has earned him a place in the list of psychology legends today.
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...
Freud's most important articles on homosexuality were written between 1905, when he published Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, and 1922, when he published "Certain Neurotic Mechanisms in Jealousy, Paranoia, and Homosexuality."[1] Freud believed that all humans were bisexual, by which he primarily meant that everyone incorporates aspects of both sexes, and that everyone is sexually attracted to both sexes. In his view, this was true anatomically and therefore also mentally and psychologically. Heterosexuality and homosexuality both developed from this original bisexual disposition.[2] As one of the causes of homosexuality Freud mentions the distressing heterosexual experience: "Those cases are of particular interest in which the libido changes over to an inverted sexual object after a distressing experience with a normal one."[3]
In Sigmund Freud’s “Sexual Morality and Modern Nervousness”, contained in Sexuality and the Psychology of Love, the writer presents separate roles for men and women as it relates to sexuality, even referring to a “double code of morality” (22) for the genders. In his paper the former often takes the role of the subject while the former becomes the object. In fact, women are described as the “true sexual guardians of the race” glorified, it seems, instead of truly studied. However, in one particular section of the essay, Freud turns his focus onto the female sexuality. In specific he references the various factors that, in his eyes, can influence the female sexual formation. The primary influences being that of the society, primarily the institution of marriage, and that of the family, which would include both a woman’s parents and children. After discussing these elements, Freud then
In chapter one, we discussed about Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis which means that individual thoughts, feeling and behavior are determined by our unconscious or unaware mind. Sigmund 's Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis can relate to one of my friends that I have had in the past that were really unaware of their urges and sexual desires even when they know what is right and wrong. My friend had numerous girlfriends, but all of them seemed to just leave him and it is all because of the same reason. When he had a girlfriend, they would last for a decent three months but somewhere around the middle of their relationship, my friend would somehow starts seeing other girls and some of those girls, he would even have sexual intercourse. I think this relates to what Sigmund Freud is trying to say about having an unconscious mind and that some humans would push all threatening urges desires, and even when my friend knows the right and wrong behavior, he would still
In this stage, a child starts to become more aware of its genitals and that of others. The phallic stage introduces the “Oedipus complex” in males and “Electra complex” in females. Other psychologists disagree with this stage. The theory of these complexes is the desire to be with the opposite sex parent and eliminating the same sex parent. The Oedipus conflict is a young males desire for his mother and sees his father as his rival, stopping him from being with his mother, henceforth, giving him the desire to take his father out of the picture. However, he is overwhelmed with castration anxiety, which is the fear he has toward his father if his father is to find out and castrates him. This fear forces him to suppress his desire toward his mother, and he then sets out to resolve his castration anxiety problem, which is called identification. To do this, the boy starts copying actions and adopts his father’s behaviors, in a way to identify himself as a man. On the other hand, the Electra complex is where a girl suffers from penis envy where she shifts her attachment from her mother to her father, and in turn, blames her mother for lack of male genitals. The girl hopes that she can have a male child to satisfy her penis envy. Eventually, the phase resolves, and the girl accepts that she doesn't have male genitalia. The phallic stage lasts from three years old till five or six years old. (Stevenson,
This paper explores Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual developmental theory. The articles, however, vary in their personal views of Freud’s model as it can be found as controversial. Freud’s ideas are highly influenced by personality, behavior, and developmental stages. This paper also examines the unconscious and conscious mind. Freud concluded that the mind is heavily influenced by the unconscious mind rather than consciousness. Stages from infancy to adulthood will also be examined.
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.
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian psychoanalyst in the twentieth century whose studies and interests were focused on psychosexual behavior, psychosocial behavior, and the unconscious. He blames incestual desires and acts on neurosis and believes neurotics were victimized and molested in their youth. Congruently, this is his explanation for sexual urges in children. He watched psychiatrists fail at inventions of electrical and chemical treatments for mental disorders, only for them to turn to treatments that followed concepts of psychoanalysis. Even though drugs diminish symptoms of suffering he believed psychoanalytic or talking therapy would truly restore a patient’s self-esteem and welfare. As quoted by Ernst G. Beier:
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.
Sigmund Freud’s Psychosexual Development Theory (1905) 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 span across the entire lifespan. Each of these stages are characterized by a specific erogenous zone which is at the crux of the conflict in the developmental stage (Freud, 1962).
Many of his ideas led up to psychoanalysis, but a major contribution was his book, “The Interpretations of Dreams”. Psychoanalysis is both a treatment, as well as a theory. Freud believed that if the unconscious thoughts were brought to the surface, than people could be helped or cured. He believed that a person's development is essentially determined by forgotten events in childhood, rather than biologically. Using psychotherapy would involve many lengthy sessions that included the patient and the psychologist speaking about issues, emotions, and traumatic experiences. The psychologist would typically sit out of sight from the patient and take notes as he/she spoke. Psychoanalysis uses techniques such as ink blots, parapraxes, free association, interpretation, resistance analysis and transference analysis to study the human mind. In modern day psychology, Freud’s works are widely criticized. One of the main critiques of psychoanalysis is that is solely lacks scientific proof. It is unmeasurable and cannot be proven nor disproven. Another major critique is that Freud used the case-study method, and focused mainly on wealthy European women, instead of broadening his studies on other types of people. Many people think that Freud over-sexualized everything in his theories, as well. Although Freud’s theories are often critiqued and overlooked, it is no secret that because of Sigmund Freud and his findings, psychology has come as far as it has today. Many of his theories and thoughts are a basis for other psychologists’ findings. Sigmund Freud was one of the most influential thinkers of his time. He opened the door for others to follow his “out of the box” styles of thinking. Psychoanalysis also opened the door for scientists to begin to study the unconscious mind, as well as dreams (which were not studied much before Freud). Because of Sigmund Freud,
For Freud, psychosexual theory occurred when personality arises, as it tries to resolve conflicts between unconscious sexual and aggressive impulses and the societal demands to suppress these impulses. In general, psychoanalytic theorists are permeated with notions of human development, and how the child changes during the course of his maturation in an explicit and implicit perspective.
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
The ideals that shape the world today are largely based on the theory that individuals have dangerous repressed sexual desires. Along with that, the individual represses these emotions in order to function in society and fit in. Freud was one to distance