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Critics of Freud psychosexual development
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Sigmund freud contribution to sexuality
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Homosexual is a romantic attraction that occurs between two people of the same sex. This is the endurance pattern with an aim of experiencing sexual, affection and romantic attractions which is exclusively between similar genders. This is one of the three major categories of sexual orientation in sex. There have been many issues and concerns regarding the issue of homosexuality. In any society, homosexual has always been considered as evil and ungodly (Connors 2007). It is also considered as something extra ordinary that is only practiced by a certain part of people. For this reason, there are many discussions on homosexuality and this also includes a number of theories. These researchers are forwarded to explain the cause and the origin of homosexuality in both men and women. One of the famous theories that were forwarded on homosexuality are the theories by Freud`s and Jung. This essay introduces the theories on homosexual as they were discussed by Freud and Jung. Further, I will compare and contrast Freud’s and Jung’s theories about the sexual orientation in women. In particular, what factors lead females to become homosexual?
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...
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...osexuality in women results from the unconscious mind of a person. In addition, Freud belief that homosexual cannot be converted to heterosexual once it is developed. On the other hand, Jung presents his arguments basing on the idea that homosexuality is caused by the spirits. This is because it is believed that homosexuals have both male and female soul. These spirits are the ones that drive an individual to be attracted to a person of the same sex. Thus, Jung presents his theory from the biblical point of view and to him, the idea of Freud that homosexual is caused by the interaction from the environment and unconscious mind is not true. This is the reason that he goes ahead to challenge the works and evidence that is discussed by Freud in the theories. However, all the two theories, Freud is more convinced and presents his arguments in a professional manner.
The first possible cause of homosexuality is genetic factors. Homosexuality is a trait from birth (Buchanan, 2000). Studies found that identical twins share many common traits. A study found that identical twins normally share homosexual behavior if one of them is homosexual. This proved that genes are likely to cause homosexuality. In addition, according to (Santinover, 2002), homosexuality is a heritable behavior. Based on heritability studies, almost any human trait is heritable including the homosexual behavior. He stated that behavioral genes are found in specific chromosome. Thus, the behavior is obviously heritable. Moreover, Italian University of Padova (2004) believes that homosexual trait is passed from mother to male offspring by natural ...
Jonathan Katz talks about the initial creation of the term “heterosexuality” and how it was used to classify certain groups of people’s way of practicing sex. Along with the negative ideology the term reflected upon society. The author talks about the early definition of the term “heterosexuality”. Katz closely examines the different cultures and what sex meant to them prior to the term and over all labeling of “heterosexual” and what become of them after the fact. Katz illustrates the many faces of the term “heterosexual” starting with the early definition of the word, which was at the
The authors of the article “The Invention of Homosexuality and heterosexuality” defined this disease as, “Inverts, according to Victorian sexologists, expressed homosexual desire because they suffered from gender dysphoria, or the sensation of being a man trapped in a woman 's body or a woman trapped in a man 's body.” Since the ideology of the time viewed homosexuality as a disorder, physicians invented ways to cure “inverts” and make them socially acceptable as normal. For example, they used the eugenics concept to justify the elimination of homosexuals.
I chose this topic because there is an issue of homophobia around the world. I find it interesting as to why people are homosexual, and if there is a gene responsible for this or if it can be developed later in life. This area of research directly relates to the age old question of “nature Vs. nurture”.
In "The Psychogenesis of a Case of Homosexuality in a Woman", Freud discusses a case of a young woman brought to him by her parents for treatment as a homosexual. Although he states that Psychoanalysis is not truly a tool for curing homosexuality, but one to help those with inner conflict in one particular area or another, he attempts to study the girl to see if Psychoanalysis could be of any help to her. Once he realized that the girl had a deep rooted bitterness towards men, he called off his study of her and told her parents that if they were to seek more psychoanalysis for her it should be sought from a woman. Prior to this discovery he found a few things of interest that may have attributed to her choice of sexual object.
Freud believed that a human must go through certain stages in their lives or they will not socially develop to their full extent. He also made claims that a human is always struggling between their human, and instinctual nature. This was a very controversial topic because Freud concluded there was a lack of individuality of the human race. If Freud’s theory was the case then humans would have less of a choice in their life, and are truly slaves to their instinctual nature. While an intelligent figure of his time, I believe that Freud went in the wrong direction when approaching his theory. While humans do have a large amount of urges that he described, the person themselves can choose what to do based not solely on society, but their wants and needs as well. Had Freud been alive today I’m sure that his theory would have theorized much different things about the human nature. I think it is important to analyze the distinct cultural setting behi...
The issue of homosexuality has been hotly debated since 1960 and scientific discipline, biology, has begun to ask the fundamental question about homosexuality. However, a few years ago, the issue was discussed mostly by people in the social sciences. Psychologists, such as Freud, studied homosexuals extensively and were coming up with an explanation for their "abnormal" behavior. All of the explanations that these people created linked homosexuality to experiences that homosexual have while growing up. Generally speaking, people in the world of psychology believed that homosexuality could be explained by a person's environment. However, in the past four or five years, the subject of homosexuality has gradually moved into the world of biology. Studies have been done recently are coming up with a genetic explanation for sexual preference. The fact that many of the scientists involved into researches of this sort are gays and Chandler Burr, scientist of genetics and biology as well, which explains a lot about the issue, that homosexual people are interested and curious about their “abnormal” nature themselves. It may also serve as an evidence that homosexuality is not the personal choice and also says about the moral competence of sexual minority people. The very term "sexual orientation," which in the 1980s replaced "sexual preference," asserts the deeply rooted nature of sexual desire and love. It implies biology again.
Homosexuality can be described as a romantic or sexual attraction or act between people of the same gender, and it can also be a term used to refer to a person's sense of identity based on the same attractions or behaviors. Homosexuality is among the three main categories of sexual orientation, alongside heterosexuality and bisexuality, and up to the present day, the scientists have not been able to know the factors that determine the sexual orientation of different people. Some of them, however, guess that sexual orientation of different people is caused by a complex interplay of the hormonal, genetic and environmental influences, and it is not a choice for the people concerned.
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:
Freud called childhood desire to sleep with the opposite sex parent and to kill the same sex parent of the Oedipus Complex. Freud describes the source of this complex in his introductory lecture (twenty-first lecture): “ You all know the Greek legend of King Oedipus, who was destined by fate to kill his father and take his mother to be his wife, who did everything possible. to escape the Oracles decree and punish himself by blinding him. learned that he had none the less unwittingly committed both these crimes. ”(16.330)
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.
Homosexuality has been the topic of constant conflict today. Homosexuality is defined as, a romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. In addition, homosexuality has been accepted more today, however, it is still frowned upon by many. Consequently, there are many challenges on the views of homosexuality. Some may think that this is an abnormal behavior, to have an attraction to the same sex. On the contrary, there are many who defend that the feelings that homosexual has, are feelings that are normal, not to mention, homosexuals believe that they were in fact born this way. Furthermore, in this essay, it will look at the challenges that are presented on this topic, and look at the conflict that is between society, homosexuals, and the church.
For many years, psychologists described homosexuality as a disorder or a treatable complex. Recently, homosexuality was removed from the DSM and is no longer considered a disorder. The gay population is no longer treated as sick but accepted as a diverse set of individuals. The many distinguishing attributes and characteristics of a gay or lesbian individual are considered to be personality attributes.
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.
Sexual orientation describes patterns of sexual and romantic attraction towards someone else. Normally one pole attracts the other, but in this case, it does not work like that. There is little information on why a person’s sexual orientation might be deviated from what is normal. Research shows that this problem may be due to the role of genes, the environment, hormones, the way a family raised the kids, or because of the brain itself. According to Sigmund Freud, all human beings are bisexual, but they become heterosexual or homosexual because of the experiences they live with their parents and other people. Psychologists and psychiatrists have a negative attitude towards homosexuality. However, there are no norms, or empirical evidence supporting the idea that attraction towards the same sex is a form of mental illness or a psychopathology. Homosexuality is a matter of choice rather than an abnormality due to brain dysfunction (APA, 1975; 1987).