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Essays of Sigmund Freud
Psychoanalytic theory sigmund freud
Essays of Sigmund Freud
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Introduction
Sigmund Freud, known to many as the father of psychoanalysis, was a psychologist, physiologist, and medical doctor. Freud suggested that he developed a new science of the mind and still to date a subject of many critical debates. In this paper, I will be exploring Freud's psychodynamic and psychosexual theories to further explain development in child psychology
Key Tenets of Freud's theory
Sigmund Freud created the first psychodynamic theory, called psychoanalysis. According to Louw and Louw (2007), this theory states that development is mainly on how unconscious conflicts get resolved by different people and various ages. Freud (1923) formalized and pre-arranged the human psyche in three parts, namely the ID, Ego, and Superego. The stages at which they develop are different throughout our lives.
Freud (1920) described the ID as primal and natural components of our traits. This includes components that are present from birth - like the "sex instinct, Eros, and the aggressive instinct" (Freud, 1923, pp. 1-66). Furthermore, Freud (1920) identified the Id as being the reckless and unconscious element of our mind which reacts frankly and instantaneously to the instincts. Before a newborn develops an ego and super-ego, the infant's personality
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This consists of erogenous zones, namely your mouth, genital region, and anus. The erogenous zone gets influenced by behavior at whatever stage the child is at, which focuses on the child's sexual desire. Furthermore, if the child is to move on to a different stage his or her developmental conflict should be resolved in his or her current stage. The child would need to resolve any conflicts as he or she progresses through each stage, in order for there to be little to no libido remains invested in any particular stage. But if the child fixated in a particular stage, their adult personality will be
Freud believed that the id is based on our pleasure principle. In other words, the id. wants whatever feels good at the time, with no consideration for the reality of the situation. A good example of this is a baby; the id is. dominant in his personality, when he wants food, he cries. During the Victorian era however people found it very hard to believe these theories as they went against natural in the novel Dr. Jekyll is like an ego the outer part of you which everyone sees and Mr. Hyde is like the id the part of us we all try to suppress as it is unacceptable in society.
In addition to Freud’s stages of development his best-known concepts are those of the id, ego, and superego (Crain, p. 268). The id personality called ‘the unconscious” is the personality that focuses on maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain through reflexes and drives such as hunger or bladder tensions (Crain, pp. 268-269). The id concept is impulsive, chaotic and unrealistic.
In Freud’s research on the mind he found three functional areas--the id, the superego, and the ego. These interrelated parts permit the self to function in society. The id is the innermost component of the three. It is the extreme unconscious. This is where the child-like unsocialized drives and instinctual impulses arise. The id knows no rules and does not abide to any external logical laws. It is only ruled by the desire for pleasure. When the id sees something it wants, all it says is, "I want that, I want that, I want that," like a young child in a toy store. The id is selfish; it represents self-centeredness in its purest form.
In Sigmund Freud’s “An Outline of Psychoanalysis”, we encounter the id, ego and the superego. Freud explains that our id controls everything “that is inherited, that is present at birth, that is laid down in the constitution” (Freud 14). Our natural instincts are controlled by the id. The fight for survival is driven by the id in our psyche. The ego “preforms by taking control over the demands of the instincts” (Freud 15) it seeks a safe
He believed everyone is born with the id. All humans when they are babies, according to Freud, are pleasure seeking and concerned with having their needs met. This is the original or unconscious personality. The ego is where decision-making occurs, judgments are made and memory is stored. Lastly, the superego contains the individual’s values, beliefs, and morals, which they get from their parents. According to Freud, women get their morals and beliefs from their mothers and men get it from their fathers. He also believes that...
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...
The basis of this approach is that psychological factors play a major role in determining behaviour and shaping personality. Freud argued that personality is composed of three major systems the id, the ego, and the superego. The id (biological part of personality) is present at birth and consists of inherited instincts and all psychological energies. The id operates according to the pleasure principle, seeking to reduce tension, avoid pain and obtain pleasure. The ego (executive part of personality) is conscious part of the mind, the “real” us.
Freud also created the Psychosexual states of Development. Adult personality that was influenced by childhood experiences,
When comparing the work of Sigmund Freud and Jean Piaget two things come to mind, they both had a lasting and profound impact on the field of psychology and both received a great amount of criticism regarding their theories. Freud is considered the founder of psychoanalysis, which is based on childhood development and psychosexual stages. Piaget was the top developmentalist of the 1960s and 1970s. His theory of cognitive development was as well studied as Freud's theory of psychosexual development was a generation before. While they both had many criticisms of their work, both Freud and Piaget influenced their respective fields of psychology so much that today their thoughts and concepts are still studied and referenced everyday. Freud’s theories have revolutionized how we think. The impact Piaget has had on developmental psychology has guided social norms of human development and education. This essay will compare and contrast the theories of Freud and Piaget.
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...
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 took the psychoanalytic approach with his Psychosexual Theory, Freud believed that a person’s primary source of motivation is sexual in nature, and that a person’s experiences early in life, as opposed to later, had a greater effect on a person as an adult. Stage one takes place from birth to about 1.5 years of age, this would be known as the Oral Stage, this is where as an infant’s pleasure centers on the mouth. Stage two is the Anal Stage which takes place from around 1.5 years of age to three years. Stage three being the Phallic Stage, this is where the child’s pleasures focuses on the genitals, and takes place from three to six years of age. The fourth stage is the Latency stage taking place from six to puberty, according to Freud this is where a child represses sexual interest and develops social and intellectual skills. Finally stage five is the Genital Stage, this is when the source of sexual pleasures becomes someone outside the family, and occurs for puberty onward. Freud believed that people develop in these five psychosexual stages, and that if any one st...
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.
All these factors are involved in the shaping of the mind. The ID, ego, and superego are always in a never-ending conflict in the unconscious mind. The resultant effect is the difference in behavior and reaction, this forming and showing the differences in personality. The Id is an essential element in our lives because as newborn children, it allows them to get their basic needs. The id wants what feels good at a particular instance with no regard to the reality of a situation. The Id is a pleasure principle seeking gratification with its instincts being aggression, food, and sexual
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.