Psychological well being for Freud is the successful control of the demands of the id by the rational ego. The efficiency of this control depends on the early stages of development being successfully or unsuccessfully completed, by the resolving of the conflicts between id, ego and super-ego at each stage (Ruben & McNeil 1987, p. 226).
Allied to this the five stages of sexual development during the first five years are also vitally important. These are from 0-2 years the oral stage. The id is dominant, and the mouth is the prime source of pleasure. Tension is reduced through satisfying basic needs, any disturbance like weaning too early according to Freud may have resulted in permanent fixation on oral gratification like over eating, nail biting and smoking and could effect the personality to become pessimistic, cynical, dependant and preoccupied with issues of giving and taking (Benson 1999, p. 33).
The anal stage at around two, sees the anus become the focus of pleasure the child becomes aware of it's bowels and pleasure is derived from expelling and withholding faeces. Fixations may be caused by either exceptionally strict toilet training or intense pleasure associated with taboos such as smearing faeces on the wall. The anal obsessive character has a wish to make a terrible mess and therefore must build defences against this like orderliness, rigidity, and hatred of waste. They are according to the theory also obstinate, stingy, punctual and possessive (Flanagan 1994, p. 217).
The phallic stage is around the age of 3-6 years features the child becoming aware of the genitals and they’re opposite sex parents. In boys Freud called this the ‘Oedipus complex’, which he described as the boy developing a strong desire for the mother and is therefore jealous of his father and wants to remove him, he then is afraid that his feelings will be discovered and fears castration by the father. Resolution of this situation comes through the child identifying with his father causing him to take on his attitudes, morals and gender (Benson 1999, p. 33).
For girls the term Freud used to explain events leading to gender resolution was the ‘Electra complex’. She has what Freud described as ‘penis envy’ she resents her mother for not providing her with one. The conflict is resolved by realising her mother is the same; she also ends up ‘identifying’ with her and adopting her female traits. Conflict at this stage Freud believed could lead to personality feature like homosexuality, authority problems and the rejection of appropriate gender roles if not resolved (Flanagan 1994, p. 218).
So according to Freud, we all have the same innate dynamics to our personalities, this is a nativist or nature view, but Freud accepted that experience plays a part in how our personalities develop, this is due to the fact that he accepts that we may all suffer upsetting experiences or traumas. Our ego would attempt to hide these away from our id, to prevent us from hurt. The ego would do this by means of defence mechanisms called ego-defences.
Freud listed several ego-defences these are Sublimination which describes the expression of forbidden drives in a manner which is acceptable. Such drives can be channelled into other behaviour like sport or painting. Repression involves involuntary burying unwanted ideas into the unconscious and keeping them there. This is a way of avoiding bad memories, fears or guilt. Suppression is the voluntary stopping of thoughts and actions. Denial is the much-used strategy of altering the perception of reality. Projection covers the attributing of ‘bad’ feelings or unacceptable behaviour on to others. Reaction formation is when the suppressing is so strong that it comes out as the opposite. Regression sees the person going back to an early stage, or reverting to infant behaviour. Isolation as it implies separates the feelings from the experience. Rationalisation describes the seeking of a reasonable excuse for a particular action, when the action was made without thought. Undoing is the attempt to undo a bad situation or feeling (Hayes & Orrell 1993, p. 229).
Defence mechanisms are survival tools used in everyday life; Freud explains how they defend our ego when it finds our impulsive drives unacceptable. It is when the mechanisms become unsuccessful that neurosis occurs. If defence mechanisms are poor the impulsive drives of the id or the early upsetting experience can break through.
Freud developed his techniques of psychoanalysis to try and find cures for neurotic patients. Many consider that the identification of defence mechanisms was the most valuable contribution of Freuds work; even psychologists who disagree with the overall Freudian approach acknowledge the usefulness of this concept (Hayes & Orrell 1993, p. 229).
Gradually Freud developed what became known as the psychoanalytic technique by encouraging patients to talk at length about their childhood experiences and their dreams using free association (saying the first thing that comes into the mind) psychoanalysis attempts to extract from their unconscious mind details of trauma or upsetting experience which had been hidden away by an ego-defence. Once the experience is transferred to the conscious mind the patient can understand why his or her neurosis (unsuccessful defence mechanism) has developed and is then able to free him or herself of the neurotic behaviour resulting from the ego-defence mechanism (Rubin & McNeil 1987, p. 284).
Most of Freuds work was ignored by scientists until 1905 when he published his explicit account of his theory of sexuality in infants and children, which shocked many nineteenth century intellectuals and made him very unpopular at the time. At the same time Freud attracted many brilliant students such as Carl Jung and Alfred Adler, who each went on to develop major psychological theories of their own (Rubin & McNeil 1987, p. 285).
With his foundering of such new and radical ideas it is easy to see why Freud came into conflict so readily with society and the establishment of his time, much of this debate over his theories have continued to the present day.
There have been much criticism of Freuds ideas and they can be grouped into three general categories. First critics point out that Freud’s theory lacks empirical evidence his sample of subjects were limited to a small number of Victorian middle-class women, who were already familiar with his theory, his interpretations were subjective, which left him open to criticism of experimenter bias (Hayes & Orrell 1993, p. 223).
The evaluation of the psychoanalytic approach in general by Grűnbaum (1998) was that it related to heavily on therapeutic achievement and that Freuds clinical data was flawed, inaccurate, and at best selective (Grűnbaum 1998, p. 220).
Secondly, the actual method or techniques involved in psychoanalysis such as Freuds ideas on the interpretation of dreams and the role of free association, have been criticised. The process of psychoanalysis works backwards. In other words Freud and his followers never predict individual behaviour; they analyse it afterwards.
Karl Popper has labelled psychoanalysis as a ‘stagnant theory’ as it used a complicated structure that explains human behaviour after the fact, but predicts nothing in advance. According to Popper it could explain everything and it was this property that made it scientifically useless, since it could make no specific predictions (Popper, K 1986).
Greenburg 1986 agrees with this and believes that Freuds case studies do not place enough stress on revealing the out comes of the treatment and that Freuds aim was to illustrate his theoretical points (Greenberg 1986, p. 240).
Thirdly there are critics who believe that psychoanalysis is simply not a science and many of the principles upon which it is based are inaccurate. An important characteristic of a scientific theory is that it should be possible to test it against reality (Hayes & Orrell 1993, p. 229).
Freuds evidence is flawed according to Colby 1960 due to the lack of an experiment, the lack of a control group, and the lack of observations that went unrecorded (Colby 1960, p. 54).
Hans Eysenck (1966) a Freudian sceptic has also dismissed psychoanalysis as a scientific discipline on the basis that there is no experimental evidence to substantiate it. Eysenck went on to argue that there isn’t actively any evidence that people are helped by the process of psychoanalysis. In 1966 Eysenck researched the effectiveness of different psychotherapies and reported that only a third of patients showed a noticeable improvement, and as third of all patients usually recover from psychiatric problems spontaneously, he claimed this showed psychoanalysis was a completely useless and highly expensive form of treatment (Hayes & Orrell 1993, p. 230).
One final criticism, which is worth covering, is the claim that Freuds work is sexually and socially unbalanced this theory was less developed for women and focused mainly on the mother and son relationship. Enns 1993 notes that his approach gives much responsibly to mothers for deficiencies and distortions in development (cited in Corey 1996, p. 128). His ‘Electra’ hypothesis seems little more than an attempt to cover up an obvious flaw in the overall psychoanalysis theory.
Culturally another major flaw with this theory is that it fails to take into account people who do not grow up in the environment Freud declared was necessary for healthy psychological development (Rubin & McNeil 1987, p. 201).
In conclusion Freuds theories have had a huge influence on many areas of debate in the twentieth century and many ‘Freudian’ concepts are a basic part of our cultural understanding of influence and behaviour. There have been many criticisms of every aspect of Freuds work it seems commonly accepted that part of Freudian theory are too generalised that there is too much stress on sex and because childhood memories, dreams and instincts cannot be measured it is unscientific and open to interpretation.
It seems psychoanalysis is a great concept in personality as long as the patient is male, grows up in a two-parent house, had a sister or female playmate at a very young age, has a great memory and can afford to devote five or more years and quite a lot of money to having their psychological problems cured.
Despite all the criticism Freud has endured his work into the human mind has acted as a catalyst and his ideas have enriched the field of psychoanalytic research and has influenced others to produce new theories that otherwise may have been missed.
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