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Gender Development And Its Association With Psychoanalysis

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What does Gender development have to do with psychoanalysis? The purpose of this assignment will be to inform the reader of gender development and its association with psychoanalysis. Within this assignment will be discussed the theory of attachment outlining the attachment a child has to its primary carer, the oedipal phase and what the father represents in this phase, how gender identity is formed, we will also explore the differences between the feminine and masculine characters and the approach gender identity has in relation to the adult male and adult female in the way that they relate to each other. Attachment is rooted from Freud’s early theories of love. The attachment theory also known as cupboard love, was first penned by…show more content…
Stage 3 the discriminate stage this is when the infant has formed a strong attachment to one individual, it is this stage that the child also experiences anxiety, distress and separation. The fourth stage Bowlby called the muti attachment stage, this is where the child forms several attachments to several people, these range from other children to other family members. Babies instinctively attach to their primary carer giver. The primary care giver usually this would be the mother is viewed as a protector by the infant, this is because of the primary care givers ability to satisfy the infants instinctual needs, such as when the child is hungry the primary care giver would provide the child with nourishment, Breast feeding the infant allows for a greater bond between the infant and the primary care giver. Freud (Gross p495) ‘believed that healthy attachments are formed when feeding practices satisfy the infants needs for food, security, and oral sexual gratification’. If the child feels anxious or falls and bumps his or her knee, the primary care giver would be there to physically and emotionally comfort the child which helps the child to feel safe again. Early theories of attachment were challenged by Harlow and Zimmerman (1959) who assumed that a mechanism similar to imprinting was in operation, to test this theory, Harlow and Zimmerman looked at young rhesus monkeys to see how attachment
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