Sigmund Freud was a very well-known psychologist in the early 20th century. He began his career in partnership with Joseph Breuer. Together they wrote and published the book Studies in Hysteria in 1895, after studying patients with hysteria and developing the idea that most mental disorders were caused by hidden traumatic experiences in the patients past. Freud began to put emphasis on the sexual experiences of childhood and he lost the support of Breuer. Freud continued his work alone and he published three more books. Freud’s work was not well recognized because of his emphasis on sex. In 1908, after the first International Psychoanalytical Congress, Freud’s work began to gain popularity and his psychoanalytic theory became well respected. He went on to publish more than twenty theoretical volumes and clinical studies. He continued to develop his ideas until he died of cancer in 1939. One of Freud’s theories was the psychosexual stages of development. It is important to recognize that Freud changed the meaning of sexuality to any form of pleasure that can be or is gathered from the body. Freud based his theory on the thought that all human instincts and drives were based on the desire to gain or increase bodily pleasure. Freud thought that if a person did not resolve their conflicts during each stage this would be the cause of any mental illness or phobia that they would have in their adult life. If one did resolve the conflict at each stage, then libido, sexual drives or
Freud’s theory of personality examined the interplay between the primitive, instinctual urges—the ‘id’; the practical and rational ‘ego’; and the morally attuned ‘superego’; ‘object relations’ refer to the "object" of an instinct”, which is “the agent through which the instinctual aim is achieved”—most often a person and, according to Freud, most often the mother (Ainsworth 1969, p. 1). The psychosexual development theory that Freud launched reduces our behaviour to mechanistic responses to an instinctive need for pleasure fueled by the ‘libido’ and barriers or distortions to the gratification of the libido at various delineated stages of development were responsible for later problems in life (Kail & Zolner 2012, p. 5). Erik Erikson later added depth to the approach by including more humanistic elements to Freud’s stages and including more periods of development (p.
. Freud’s commitment to the theory of “Psycho-Sexual” development of the person stems from his own childhood memories. He was born into a family that lived in a small space, with his half-brothers that look like adults and a father that looked like a grandfather. At a very young age he would record his dreams that exposed his fantasies. I believe he was confused about sex growing up that he is confused about his feelings about sex. His commitment to his theory was to decipher what was appropriate for the different stages of life. In order for Freud to make his feelings seem “normal”, he opened up peoples’ minds about the thought of a person and their sexual accumulation.
Freud describes child development as a series of psychosexual stages whereby the pleasure seeking ID becomes focused on certain erogenous zones and this psychosexual energy or libido is the sole force behind human behaviour. He examines how if at any
During the years of 1885-1886 Freud's train of thought changed; he realized that in order for him to understand hysteria, he would have to study psychology and not neurology. He believed that the main characteristic of the neurotic person was a lack of normal sex, that's ironic for him to say because not one time threw out this book did I hear him speak on his own sex life, which would lead me to think he didn't have children if he hadn't spoken of them.
Sigmund Freud's "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality", written in 1905, attempted to trace the course of the development of the sexual instinct in human beings from infancy to maturity. This instinct is not simply an animal instinct but is specific to both human culture and the form of conscious and unconscious life we live within it. For Freud sexuality is infinitely complicated and far-reaching in its effects and forms the basis of self-identity and interactions. His Third Essay discusses the transformations of puberty in both males and females. Part four of this essay focuses on the differentiation between male and female sexuality. Freud states in this part that 'as far as the autoerotic and masturbatory manifestations of sexuality
Sigmund Freud is a very known psychologist from the early scholars of the psychology world. One of His most significant outlooks and study was in the sexology field. Sexology had already been constituted as a separate form of enquiry some time before the appearance of Freud’s most important contribution, The three essays on the theory of sexuality (1905) and many of the terms that we tend to identify with Freud, such as libido, component instincts, erotogenic zones, catharsis, autoerotism and narcissism were already in circulation. (Akroterion. 58, 79-96, Dec. 2013) Some have argued that Freud did not acknowledge the contribution of sexology to psychoanalysis sufficiently in his studies and findings. But others may find this statement as overstated. Further in my research you will read how Freud’s work contributed greatly to the sexology dialogue and psychosexual development.
In Freud’s theories the libido also plays in important role; the primary process of the libido is the dreamlike and irrational state of the libido and it
Freud mostly based his theory from his therapy sessions with his adult patients consisting of many with various psychosomatic disorders. According to Freud’s theory these patients were experiencing physical symptoms because there was a psychosexual stage which they had not fully fulfilled. “He believed that our most basic instinct is to derive pleasure by giving in to our innate aggressive and sexual impulses.” (Mossler, 2011 section 1.5)
Basic Philosophy - The basic philosophy is that the sex instinct is the most factor influencing personality; sexual instinct is present at birth, but it occurs in stages. The sex instinct provides the driving force for thought and activity. If conflicts from these stages are not resolved fixations may occur. If overindulgence at a stage may result in a person remaining at that stage. Certain personality traits develop from difficulty in one stage or another, for instance the anal stage can give the obsession for a person to be excessively neat and clean.
Freud argued that an individual’s instinctual drive was sexually orientated. In the same way that “hunger seeks nutrition,
Freud continued his work on repression, memories, and past experiences of trauma to be the motive for all neurotic symptoms. Trauma in past experiences was not always the key determinant for hysteria cases, there needed to be another component for the cause. The combination of past trauma and present trauma awakened memories of the earlier trauma which constituted the true aggravation (Storr, 1989, p. 15). However, he began to see a common factor in his work. Next Freud noticed that a common denominator of all his hysteria cases was premature sexual experiences. Sex encompasses many emotions through mind, body, and spirit that can influence a great deal of character if repressed. Storr pointed out that, “Freud became more and more convinced that the chief
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), was an influential Austrian psychologist and the founder of psychoanalysis. Freud went on to produce several theories, such as his theory on psychosexual development, which will be the focus of this assignment. Using the case study of a six-year-old patient, I will discuss the key principles of Freud’s theory on psychosexual development. Including, comprehensive definitions of the concepts used, and the stages of Freud’s psychosexual development. Lastly using Freud’s theory, I will explain how the patient’s current behaviour, could impact her behaviour in adulthood.
Children who complete these stages successfully, grow to be calm and well centered adults (Ku,
From a Freudian perspective human development is based on psychosexual theory. From a psychosexual perspective maturation of the sex drives underlies stages of personality development (Shaffer et al., 2010). Ultimately, Freud believed that sex was the most important instinct and any mental disturbance revolved around sexual conflicts that were suppressed from childhood. Furthermore, Freud believed that parents permitting too much or too little gratification of sexual needs led
Sigmund Freud was the discoverer and inventor of psychoanalysis and coined the term in 1896 after publishing studies on Hysteria with Joseph Breuer in 1895. Psychoanalysis still remains unsurpassed in its approach to understanding human motivation, character development, and psychopathology. Freud’s insights and analyses of psychic determinism, early childhood sexual development, and unconscious processes have left an indelible mark on psychology (Korchin, 1983).