Raymond, The Psychologist, Shame, And Doubt

It appears that Raymond is at the stage in his life where egocentrism is basically a natural part of life and somewhat benefit him (Feldman, 225). He only focuses on interaction with himself and does not consider the many thing concerning others. His environment and how he interacts with it results in a reaction that reflect part of his learning. Despite the neighbors being upset about his musical instrument he does not care. This is because children at this stage develop the feelings of concern about others and their emotion sometimes later in their life naturally. At this stage, children usually struggle and do not comprehend the concept of thinking from others perspective. However, Raymond will understand why his mother feels the way she does, and why his mother’s boyfriend is annoyed later in his life. Otherwise at this moment Raymond knows that his routine and the things that he loves to do

The threats and instructions he gives makes Raymond feel that his autonomy is taken away. So he does feel ashamed and retreats under the table. According to Erik Erikson, a Psychologist, Shame, and Doubt arise in conflict with the need for autonomy as a common stage in psycho-social development. When autonomy or freedom is questioned, shame and doubt will follow, in most cases. In the case of Raymond, he exhibits shame and doubt as he is being harshly disciplined, ridicule, threatened and restricted repeatedly. Raymond does not quite understand and kept struggling to keep his volume level down. He plays and sang under the table and he may either have not noticed that he was being loud or forgot already the comments of the boyfriend before he once again asked Raymond to be silent. Possibly scared and not knowing what to do this place a huge restriction on any of the actions that Raymond can perform and thusly he resorts to the use of his imagination, and seeks comfort with his Elmo