The Psychoanalytic Perspective on Infant Development

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Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, was the first to develop a theory of human development with a focus on unconscious processes and instincts. Freud believed unconscious conflicts in early childhood can determine who a person will be in adulthood. He also believed that the mind contains three parts known as the id, ego, and superego, which govern a person’s judgment (Frank, 2013). The id, which Freud believed to be present at birth, is viewed as the childlike part of the unconscious. It is pleasure seeking and represents a person’s wants, instincts, and drives. The ego, which is both conscious and unconscious, is the adult part of a person’s mind as well as the compromising component between the id and the supergo. It serves as a realistic divide between the id’s pleasure seeking principle and the superego’s idealist seeking principle. The superego can be viewed as the parent portion of the unconscious which suppresses the id’s desires and seeks perfection. The superego is also one of the only aspects of Freud’s theory that relates to the person having a strong influence from society. Freud’s mechanisms of the mind conflict with each other so that a person will be able to function ordinarily in society without being too narcissistic or too judgmental of oneself (McCleod, 2008). However, unresolved conflict in Freud’s stages may have a negative effect in a person’s adulthood.
Freud developed five psychosexual stages, ranging from birth to adolescence, in which a person’s libidinal drive is focused on his or her own body or sublimated onto something or someone else. If a person is unable to overcome a conflict present in each stage, it is believed that certain characteristics may arise in adulthood. In his first stage of ...

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McLeod, S. A. (2008). Id, Ego and Superego. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html
Roesler, C. (2012). Are Archetypes Transmitted More by Culture Than Biology? Questions Arising From Conceptualizations of the Archetype. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 57(2), 223-246. doi: 10.111/j.1468-5922.2011.01963.x
Roland, A. (1996). How universal is the self? In: Cultural pluralism and psychoanalysis: The Asian and North American experience. New York: Routledge, pp. 8-14
Whelan, M. (2003). Fairbairn’s Language and Concepts. Psychoanalysis Downunder, issue 3. Retrieved from http://www.psychoanalysisdownunder.com.au/downunder/backissues/issue3/343/fairbairn_concepts

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