Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory: Stages of Development and Personality Formation, Summaries of Personality Development

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Psychoanalytic

Theory

Sigmund Freud

Psychic determinism

 This principle holds that in all mental

functioning nothing happens by

chance.

 Everything a person feels, thinks,

fantasizes, dreams, and does has a

psychological motive.

What Freud believed……

 Personality is formed in the first six

years of life.

 Fixation is an unresolved conflict

caused by frustration.

 Defense mechanism.

The human psyche

 Id

 ego

 superego.

Anxiety may be present from

conflicts between the id, ego,

superego.

At particular points in the developmental

process, he claimed a single body part is

particularly sensitive to sexual, erotic

stimulation.

These erogenous zones are the mouth,

the anus, and the genital region.

The child’s libido centers on behavior affecting

the primary erogenous zone of his age; he cannot

focus on the primary erogenous zone of the next

stage without resolving the developmental conflict

of the immediate one.

The Oral Stage

From birth to about 18

months

Infants’ pleasure comes from stimulation of the mouth. If we get fixated at this stage, we might have oral fixations.

Characteristics of frustration at this stage, (mother refused to nurse on demand or truncated nursing sessions early) are pessimism, envy, suspicion, and sarcasm.

The overindulged oral characteristics, (nursing urges were always and often excessively satisfied) are optimistic, gullible, and full of admiration for others around him.

I.E. gum chewing, smoking, etc.

The Anal Stage

18 months to 3 years.

Conversely, a child may opt to retain feces, enjoying the pleasurable pressure of the built- up feces in his intestine. If this tactic succeeds and the child is overindulged, he will develop into an anal retentive character.

This character is neat, precise, orderly, careful,

stingy, withholding, obstinate, meticulous, and

passive-aggressive.

The resolution of the anal stage, (proper toilet

training), permanently affects the individual

propensities to possession and attitudes toward

authority.

The Phallic Stage Age 3-

Increased sexual interest causes the child to be physically attracted to the parent of the opposite sex.

For the boy the Oedipal Complex (ED-OPAL) occurs. The boy falls in love with the mother and wants to get rid of the father.

For the girls, they go through Penis Envy (Electra Conflict). The girl loves the father and competes with the mother for his love. The girl treasures the penis because she does not have one and the father does.

Fixation at the phallic stage develops a phallic character, who is reckless, resolute, self-assured, and narcissistic—excessively vain and proud. The failure to resolve the conflict can also cause a person to be afraid or incapable of close love. Freud postulated that fixation could be a root cause of homosexuality.

The next period is LATENCY from 6 to puberty. This is not a stage, but a time during psychosexual development is on hold.