1. Eric Fromm defined the “syndrome of decay” as the presence of a cluster of three different personality disorders (maximum 25 points).
Eric Fromm discussed three very unappealing and evil forms of personality in psychologically unhealthy people that make up the "syndrome of decay", Necrophilia or the love of death, Malignant Narcissism or infatuation with self, and incestuous symbiosis or the propensity to be constrained to a mothering figure or something that is similar. In my opinion these pathological orientations form the most vicious and destructive personality traits in a human. The attraction to death, and getting a thrill of bloodshed and a neurotic symbiosis with mother figures is morbid. Humans with these personalities have been able to kill millions of people throughout history.
Contrary to "the syndrome of decay" is the "syndrome of growth", biophilia or the passionate love of life, love or love for other humans, and positive freedom or spontaneous activity of a whole integrative personality. These are what make the “syndrome of growth”. However, most people have an average form of personality growth, these syndromes are extreme.
1a. Define and explain the personality disorders present in the syndrome of decay
(max 12.5 points).
Eric Fromm held confidence in that psychologically disturbed people are unable to love or form bonds with other humans. One of His focal points in his studies was the “Syndrome of decay”. Three pathological orientations combine to make up this syndrome.
Necrophilia is defined as any attraction to death. A person with this disorder hates humanity,usually bullies, love bloodshed, havoc, and devastation. They absolutely love talking about people with terminal illnesses or sickness,...
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...love. These neurotic needs usually start in childhood (aggression,affection). A child will “passionately” cling to one parent and feel jealous of another. However, even if their might be several aspects to these behaviors, the child ultimately wants security, and not sexual intercourse.
Karen Horney also found the Freudian concept “penis envy” illogical and if this concept was even brought about so should “womb envy”. She believed sometimes boy’s do express a desire to have a baby, however it is not resulted in universal male “womb envy”.
She did however agree with Alfred Adler in that many women did posses a masculine protest, which means that have a pathological belief that men are superior to women. Which then leads to the neurotic wish to be a man. This is not exactly “penis envy” but it is the “wish to have the masculine privileges and qualities” in our culture.
Some of the most important information about psychopathy is that it is a personality disorder. These people are usually charming the way into people’s life to use and manipulate them to get what they want. These people do not have a soul of remorse for what they do because all they care about is themselves and what they can get from others. When these people using their charm they ma...
According to Freud's theory, in the beginning of sexual development of both boys and girls, the mother is the first desired object, seen as almighty and capable ...
The article “Some Psychological Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction between the Sexes” by Sigmund Freud focus on the difference between boys and girls and the consequences and impact the Oedipus complex and Penis envy. Freud studies the consequences and how boy and girls develop and move forward from this phase. It is to say that Freud has a strong point of view about this, and somehow this theory can come as masochism and has been criticizes by many feminist; but I cannot ignore the complexity and how his ideas are proper. But can we used this theories to understand the modernity if the society we live in.
In the research report “Sex Differences in Jealousy: Evolution, Physiology, and Psychology” conducted by Buss, Larsen, Westen, and Semmelroth (1992), the primary purpose of their study is to differentiate the gender differences, particularly in humans. This interest seems to originate from the difference between humans and all of the other animals, whereby paternity is most significant to humans – specifically males. They believe this varies from other animals that can display lowered paternity probability and greater cuckoldry, which stems from female animal’s biological capability of internal female fertilization (251). Hence, females of most species will most certainly know that they are the mother of the off spring, but emotional infidelity from the male partner via spending resources on another female for instance, is a potential consequence experienced by the female giving birth. With men, it differs on the basis of cuckoldry, in the sense that their potential consequence is when their female partner engages in sexual activity with another male – in the animal kingdom it is known as the rival gametes (251). Simply put,
Torgersen, S. (2009). The nature (and nurture) of personality disorders. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 50(6), 624-632. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9450.2009.00788.x
Freud’s work has been criticised as being biased towards one gender and the focus of his theories that males are superior as they have a penis and females don’t is biased in favour of males.
Numerous advances led to Sigmund Freud’s inspirational Stages of Psychosexual Development, and it was Freud that introduced a clear theory explaining the process by which infants develop into adults. The transition from the Oral, Anal and Phallic stages begins to help us understand some of the processes that might lead to understanding attachment issues. Freud argued that humans are born “polymorphously perverse,” the idea that any number of objects could be a source of pleasure. While relief from stress observed in a child might be interpreted as simply the absence of emotional pain, on a deeper level, re-attachment and physical closeness to a caregiver after prolonged separation should result in a pleasurable experience. Setting aside for the moment the sexual aspects of Freud’s theory, the basis of his premise remains one of the human connection that is gained through some form of physical contact, be it obtained from others or themselves. (Stevenson, 2001)
Jealousy is an emotional state that erupts when a valued relationship is being threatened (Buss et al., 1992). Men and women both express jealousy tendencies when they feel their romantic relationships are being threatened. Many researchers have studied sex differences in romantic jealousy to investigate at what particular time do men and women feel the most distressed or jealous. For instance, Bus et al. (1992) and Harris and Christenfeld (1996), found that men feel more distressed when they think their romantic partner is engaging in sexual infidelity, whereas women feel more distressed when they think their romantic partner is emotionally attached to someone else. These findings may be very insightful and useful to many of us who experience jealousy episodes; but importantly, it will allow us to investigate the validity of the evolutionary theory that is used to explain most sex differences. In the following paragraphs, I will describe the evolutionary theory that explains sex differences in jealousy and four related empirical studies. Lastly, I will
Multiple Personality Disorder is a mental illness which most commonly has been referred to as Dissociative disorder or DID in recent years[1]. The illness commonly disassociated with schizophrenia finds a person experiencing two or more clearly differing personalities which will in habit assume control at some stage. Changing from one personality to another in a matter of seconds, the person will actually believe that they have more than one personality. DID can co-occur with other illnesses which include a range of anxiety disorders. The causes of DID are still not proven but it is thought to have occurred in response to a traumatic childhood experience[1]. The diagnosis is not constructed as a set test and so the mental health professional is required to test a patient using a mental status exam. The various symptoms of the illness can be treated through a range of treatments ranging from talk therapy to medications, but this does not always smooth out the outcomes resulting in a chaotic, imbalanced life. A great amount of controversy surrounds DID and is disputed by mental health professionals, some even believing that it does not exist[1]. Whatever the case, DID is displayed powerfully throughout the miniseries ‘Sybil’ in which a young emergency teacher finds herself with DID in response to horrific childhood memories[4].
Ogloff, J. R. (2006). Psychopathy/antisocial personality disorder conundrum. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, (40), 519-528.
Two Greek words: ‘psyche’ (soul or mind) and ‘pathy’ (suffering or disease), were combined in the 19th century by German Psychiatrists, to form a word that would describe the most dangerous and violent of all humans. Psychopathy, today, is called ‘mental disorder’, the study of which is still known as psychopathology. Other relating terms like 'constitutional (inborn) psychopaths' or 'psychopathic personalities' were used through the early 20th century to cover anyone socially undesirable in any way or those who violated legal laws and moral expectations.
Instead, Horney emphasized that sociocultural factors were the primary agent of female development and personality (Ingram, 2001; Smith, 2007). Notably, Horney focus of feminine psychology originated from her thinking that psychology was ‘androcentric’ (O’Connell, 1980). Furthermore, Horney’s essays challenged and disagreed with the Freudian concept of penis envy, female masochism and feminine personality development (Enns, 1989; Paris, 1998). In her 1926 paper on ‘The Flight from Womanhood’ Horney wrote ‘and that what women really envy is not the penis but the superior position of men in society’ (Horney, 1926, as cited in O’Connell, 1980, p. 85). On reflection of her early theories of feminine psychology, feminist ideologies are apparent. Horney attributed women’s feelings of inferiority to a patriarchal society of one-sided masculine bias which subordinates women to men (Eckardt, 2005). By voicing her concerns regarding gender-bias and gender role stereotyping; and that women should not be understood in terms of their difference and inferiority to men, she highlighted the feminist ideology of the need for men and women to have equal rights (Paris, 1989). However, although Horney’s essays were contentious and radical for her time, they were largely ignored. (Quinn, 2010). As Ingram (2001) suggests Horney tired of the disinterested
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.
Penis envy usually occurs in the phallic phase of the psycho-sexual development of a child. A girl sees her father’s authoritarian figure in the family and she can connect this totalitarian image with the
Luce Irigaray, ’ article, “This Sex Which is Not one,” can be succinctly summarized by the following key points. First, the author mentions the way women are seen in the western philosophical discourse and in psychoanalytic theory. She also talks about the women’s sexuality in many ways. ”Female sexuality has always been concepualtized on the basis of masculine parameters.” Women are seen in qualitatively rather than quantitatively. “Must this multiplicity of female desire and female language be understood as shards, scattered remnants of a violated sexuality? A sexually denied?” Freud mentions that the clitoris is a small penis. The female parts are always seen as a commodity for men. Women don’t need men’s object to pleasure themselves