Psychoanalysis and Personality Learning Unit 2 PDF

# Psychoanalysis and Personality ## Learning Objectives After completing this chapter you should be able to: - Understand why the psychoanalytic perspective of personality differs so markedly from that of other theories. - Have an understanding of psychoanalytic conceptualizations regarding the w...

# Psychoanalysis and Personality ## Learning Objectives After completing this chapter you should be able to: - Understand why the psychoanalytic perspective of personality differs so markedly from that of other theories. - Have an understanding of psychoanalytic conceptualizations regarding the workings of the mind in relation to personality. - Develop an awareness of the distinction between conscious and unconscious mental states. - Apply psychoanalytic concepts to human personality. - Apply psychoanalytic ideas to your understanding of the ways in which people relate to one another. ## 5.1 Introduction Psychoanalysis is one of the most momentous intellectual developments of the 20th century (Schwartz, 1999). It is the only theory of personality that offers a structural and dynamic model of the mind. From its inception until the present, psychoanalysis has elicited heated debates and controversies. At times, such as occurred in Nazi Europe in 1933, there have been bannings and the burning of Freudian texts (Quinodoz, 2004). Yet despite its seemingly ever-contentious status, psychoanalysis forms part of daily thought and conversation. Its pioneering ideas about mental states, the unconscious, suppression and repression, the ego, and psychological defense mechanisms are comfortably woven into the fabric of contemporary discourse. Although many other complementary and competing psychological theories have arisen since Freud's quintessential breakthroughs, psychoanalysis, both as a theory and a technique, is still practiced. Its scientific status has been compellingly defended (Shedler, 2010, 2017; Solms, 2018; Steinert et al., 2017). Today, there are many different schools of psychoanalysis, which share common ground but also have quite large discrepancies (Bernardi, 2015). Some examples of the different psychoanalytic schools or theoretical groupings are: the Contemporary Freudians, the Kleinians (based on Melanie Klein's theories), object relational psychoanalysts, the intersubjective school, the French psychoanalytic school, and several others. Indeed, in 2009, for the first time in South African history, the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) granted permission for a South African psychoanalytic training association to be established. Prior to this, interested South African psychotherapists either had to train to be psychoanalysts overseas or remained in South Africa, practicing as psychoanalytically informed psychologists (Solms, 2010). The current status of psychoanalysis will be discussed later in this chapter. Following the case study presented below, the chapter will consider the origins and development of psychoanalysis. It will then proceed to discuss how psychoanalytic theory can contribute to the study of personality. ## Case Study Lungile, a 27-year-old engineer, grew up in Mpumalanga with her grandparents, mother and brother. As she grew up, there was a clear distinction drawn between the tasks, behaviors and privileges ascribed to girls and boys. However, Lungile was a bit of a tomboy. She believed her brother was the favorite child because he was a boy, and this angered and upset her. On weekends, Lungile's grandfather would take her with him to the garage where he worked, and would show her how car engines operated. She really enjoyed these times. Her granny and mother used to insist that before she was allowed to join him she had to finish the household chores. When she reached her teens, Lungile felt a great deal of conflict. Becoming a typical woman (like her friends, mother and granny) seemed to mean not being allowed to be as free as she wanted to be to do the things in which she was interested. Eventually, through the intervention of her maths teacher, who had high hopes for her, she was encouraged to apply to study at university. She excelled and qualified in her chosen field, but she still feels unsettled when friends remark that she is in a male career and will be threatening to any potential boyfriends. ## 5.2 History and Background Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), founder of psychoanalysis, was born in Freiberg (now Příbor, Czech Republic). Freud's theories are referred to as classical psychoanalysis. Over time, many other theorists have taken up his fertile ideas, expanding and extending them in various directions. This chapter will give an overview of Freud's essential ideas about the human mind and personality. In Chapter 6, the theories of the so-called neo-analytic theorists – that is, theorists strongly influenced by Freud – will be explored. At the age of 17, Freud began his medical training at the University of Vienna; his training stretched from 1873 to 1881 (Jones, 1957). However, he was never passionate about medical practice, and his strongest interest initially was in zoological research. Freud worked at the Physiological Institute of Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke from 1876 to 1882. He was influenced by Von Brücke's beliefs that all biological processes could be understood using the principles of physics and chemistry. This was not a widely held belief at that time, when religious and vitalist concepts of biology were dominant (Storr, 1989). Vitalism was a philosophical doctrine proposing that all living phenomena (people, animals, plants etc.) could not only be understood in mechanical or chemical terms, but that there was also something particular – a life force – that implies a degree of self-determination in all living things. The ideas of cause and effect, derived from the natural sciences, were essential theoretical principles for Freud; thus, his theories are deterministic in nature. He believed that all human psychology – including thoughts, emotions and fantasies – could be explained in relation to scientific cause-and-effect principles. The need to earn enough money to marry his sweetheart Martha Bernays propelled Freud into making the decision to practise as a medical doctor, not the professional role the committed researcher had originally wanted. Thus in 1882 he went to work at the Vienna General Hospital for three years to gain the practical experience necessary to equip him for private practice. His work there led to his appointment as a lecturer in neuropathology (diseases of the nervous system) at the University of Vienna. In the same year he also went to work at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris under Jean-Martin Charcot, an esteemed neurologist (Storr, 1989). The focus of neurology at that time was on understanding the ancient puzzle of hysteria. Freud's endeavours to solve the mysteries of this mental disorder laid the foundations for his monumental intellectual contributions to contemporary thought (Storr 1989). ## 5.3 Hysteria Hysteria was regarded as a mental disorder that included physical symptoms such as nervous tics, paralysis and anaesthesia of parts of the body, without organic origin. Medical science struggled to understand and treat the disorder. At the time, Charcot was the leading practitioner in the treatment of hysteria. Charcot used hypnotic suggestion to demonstrate that psychological, rather than physiological, factors underpinned hysteria. He demonstrated to audiences of physicians that he could remove hysterical symptoms, and also restore – or even produce – such symptoms in hysterical patients. Charcot used hypnotic suggestion more as a mode of demonstration than a cogent form of cure (Quinodoz, 2004). Freud initially attempted to use hypnosis to try to cure hysterical patients. However, he explored other, more effective, methods of treatment. Finally, he settled on classic psychoanalytic technique for the treatment of hysteria and other neurotic ailments. His theories were always shaped by his painstaking observations of his patients, or analysands, and his own introspective process. Freud wrote Studies on Hysteria with his friend and colleague Josef Breuer. It was published in 1895. This book they put forward findings of their case studies on hysterical patients. The revolutionary idea they put forward was that mental pain and distress be transformed by the mind into physical symptoms. Freud was to discover that the underlying causes of hysteria were sexual instinctual desires or memories that the individual could not manage psychologically. Freud's patients reported childhood seductions, usually by fathers or significant others, with such regularity that Freud proposed his seduction theory to explain the aetiology (cause) of hysteria. He was later to modify this theory as he came to understand that either actual seduction or a forbidden early wish, or jarring impression regarding sexuality, could underlie hysteria (Schwartz, 1999). His abandonment of the seduction theory has been a source of controversy, especially with feminist thinkers who believe he capitulated to pressure from male colleagues to abandon it. It is true that nowadays people are more aware of the extent of childhood sexual abuse than Freud could have been. This greater awareness comes from the present-day emphasis on open communication and the upholding of the rights of children in many countries. This was not the case in earlier times. The essential point that came out of Freud's new discovery was the realisation that childhood events or fantasies – could be the cause of a psychological disorder (Schwartz, 1999). Thus, the hysteric could neither remember nor completely forget a specific, traumatic childhood event or fantasy of a sexual nature (Freud, 1914). Prior to this, Freud had envisioned the psychoanalyst's task as being like that of an archaeologist of the mind, unearthing actual memories and bringing them to light. He came to see that this initial idea was unidimensional and reductionistic, and that it did not holistically address the depths and intricacies of the workings of the mind. Analysts were tasked with listening very carefully to their patients, and specifically the links that patients made between ideas. Working with patients' dreams was and still is a very important focus for psychoanalysts. Freud believed that dreams were the royal road to the unconscious parts of the mind. Psychoanalytic dream interpretation is a collaborative affair. The patient tells the analyst his or her dream (the manifest dream content) and then the analyst asks the patient to associate to every element and aspect of the dream. In this way the underlying meanings (the latent dream content) slowly emerges to be worked with. Freudian analysis, including dream interpretation, is not a one-size-fits-all interpretive paradigm; each patient has unique memories and associations that give shape and meaning to their thoughts, behaviours and dreams. Freud and Breuer came to refer to the psychoanalytic process as the 'talking cure', a name coined by famous patient 'Anna O.' (Bertha Pappenheim). Thus classical psychoanalytic technique evolved as a logical extension of their understandings of hysteria: the physical symptoms of hysteria were not to be the treatment focus, as this had proved futile, but the underlying cause of the symptoms (their underlying meaning) would be (Schwartz, 1999). Ultimately, psychoanalysis proposes that psychological problems and symptoms (including physical manifestations) are underpinned by problems of human relationship, especially the earliest childhood relationships with parents and/or caregivers. These relational problems come to be encoded within the deepest layers of the evolving mind coming to make up the individual’s inner world. These deep psychic layers – and particularly the memories of the events that shaped them – are not directly accessible to the individual conscious mind. However, they pervade mental life, exerting a powerful influence. In addition, the individual experiences internal difficulties in relation to his or her desires on the one hand, and the demands of the external world (including morals) on the other. All these mental currents cause internal conflict; indeed, classical Freudian psychoanalysis is a conflict theory. Freud believed that individuals were born with a genetically inherited temperament. He theorised that one’s temperament, together with the mental imprint of one’s earliest relational experiences – most importantly, childhood relational trauma – comprised personality (Ellman, 2010). As a scientist, Freud based all his theories on his clinical observations, namely his work with patients. This is no different from the case-study method used in the development of medicine. However, one of the frequent – misguided – critiques of psychoanalysis is that it is not based on empirical evidence. Indeed, the development of this paradigm is based upon the documentation of painstakingly detailed case studies. These case studies comprise observations of the minute detail of each patient’s history, symptomatic presentations and hours (sometimes hundreds of hours) of psychoanalysis (Ellman, 2010; Jones, 1957). Psychoanalysis developed concurrently as a theory and as a practice; however, psychoanalytic theory has broader application to many non-clinical disciplines, such as philosophy, sociology, social anthropology, cultural studies and literature. This is not the case with any other psychological theory. Freud believed himself to be a scientist rather than a philosopher, although psychoanalysis is, strictly speaking, neither science nor philosophy. To be scientific, a theory must be able to predict outcomes and thus be falsifiable, which psychoanalysis cannot do. What psychoanalysis offers is a hermeneutical system – a way of analysing and explaining human behaviour, and social and cultural life and structure. It is also a powerful therapeutic technique. ## Controversy Many people suffer from phobias (irrational fears) that they wish to be rid of, for example (among hundreds): - arachnophobia (fear of spiders) - agoraphobia (fear of going outside) - claustrophobia (fear of small, enclosed spaces). Much of Freud’s work involved analysing the deepest roots of his patients’ phobias, so that they could be permanently rid of them. Freud came to understand that a phobia was a paralysing fear that served to protect the conscious mind from becoming aware of the actual underlying intolerable unconscious idea from the past. Understood in this way, a phobia functions somewhat defensively and is not a random, senseless fear. Nowadays, people are often referred to cognitive behavioural (CB) therapists for the treatment of phobia. This is because cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) offers relatively fast relief from phobia, while psychoanalysis takes much longer. Clients and medical-aid companies are drawn to CBT’s promise of fast (though often short-lived) results. CBT interventions will typically focus on the phobia alone in a course of treatment of a phobia. Contemporary life is lived in a time of instant gratification and quick fixes, and this thinking has permeated the area of complex psychological problems. Certainly, CBT interventions are excellent for emergency sorts of problems – for example, the fear of flying, if one must board an aircraft in the near future one cannot wait for deeper, longer-term treatments to be effective. However, the complexity of the human mind is such that, despite the hope that one can overcome psychological problems easily and quickly through CBT, in fact, multiple quick, shallow CB treatments are sometimes the treatment pattern undertaken by mental-health consumers. This is because clients using CBT often find that, although a specific phobla or problem has been treated successfully, a new symptom or phobia quickly takes its place. This happens because the deeper layers of relational trauma and/or psychic conflict have not been reached and worked on; until this is achieved, the individual is likely to suffer from various onto deeply den, depression, relationship problems, eating disorder, sexual dysfunct phobia etc.) resulting from buried unresolved internal conflicts. ## 5.4 Personality Structures ### 5.4.1 Core tenets of Psychoanalytic Theory Classical psychoanalytic theory can be applied very productively to the study of personality, because it is a multifaceted developmental theory as opposed to some of the other personality theories discussed in this book. Psychoanalysis does not merely describe and analyse human behaviours and motives, but is, as has been mentioned above, a dynamic theory of the human mind in all of its intricacies and variation. Therefore, although one can apply this theory to understandings of personality, this needs to be done with the awareness of the limitations of the actual personality construct itself, which focuses on observable human behaviour rather than on deeper mental processes. Freud’s theory is highly complex. In order to begin to understand it, it is necessary to keep the term ‘psychodynamic’ in mind. This term implies that the mind is multifaceted and always in dynamic process – therefore, there are no linear cause-and-effect hypotheses for psychoanalysis to explain personality. Implicit in this is the idea that psychoanalysis is a conflict theory – that is, alive and inherent in everyone, all the time, are conflicts between different internal (intrapsychic) and external (people, events) stimuli. The way in which people manage their deepest forbidden desires, childhood traumas, emotional life, and present and future goals shapes personality. However, for Freud, these first two aspects – one’s internal management of the past and its traumas, and one’s secret forbidden desires (buried in the unconscious mind) – are by far the most decisive in determining adult personality. Thus, Freud was regarded as a psychic determinist, because of his most basic hypothesis: that the past, especially early childhood events, determines present psychological functioning (Van Niekerk, 1996). #### 5.4.1.1 First Topography Freud’s first theory of the structure of the mind is known as the first topography. Freud (1900, 1915c) believed that the mind was dynamic – that there was constant interaction between its different parts. Freud termed his theorisations on the structure and functions of the mind ‘metapsychology’. Freud’s initial investigations led him to propose that the mind consisted of three parts: - The conscious - The unconscious - The preconscious. All three parts could be thought of as having an essential role to play in psychic functioning. These terms are also used to describe the state of an idea, for example a conscious, preconscious or unconscious idea. The famous metaphor is to think of the mind as being like an iceberg (see Figure 5.2). The tiny tip represents a person’s consciousness, while the unconscious comprises its vast, hidden depths. The preconscious part functions at the border of the conscious and the unconscious (elaborated below). **The unconscious** Material that gets pushed away – repressed – includes painful childhood memories, and forbidden sexual and/or aggressive wishes or phenomena in the outside world that feel too threatening to enter into awareness, for whichever deeper reason. The preconscious part of the mind can be thought of as a gatekeeper between the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind. Forbidden wishes or repressed memories arising from the depths of the unconscious will be pushed out of awareness by the preconscious into the unconscious. This is termed ‘repression’. On the other hand, any phenomenon from the outside world that is sensed as being potentially threatening (potentially evoking forbidden wishes or memories) would be deflected from awareness. All of these processes happen outside of one’s awareness. Repression is always unconscious. Thus, the preconscious protects the conscious mind as best as it can from the intrusion of unwelcome, potentially destabilising ideas or memories from within or outside the individual. On the other hand, if an individual tries consciously to concentrate in order to prepare for a test, you might try to temporarily push from your mind that horrible fight you have just had with your friend. This is termed suppression. For example, if you are trying to concentrate in order to prepare for a test, you might try to temporarily push from your mind the horrible fight you have just had with your friend. Bear in mind that repressed memories and fantasies are the result of the young child's underdeveloped mind being overwhelmed by an event, wish or thought. Because a baby’s or child's mental processes are yet unsophisticated, the childish mind does the only thing it can when overwhelmed – that is, pushes the unwanted mental phenomenon away and out of awareness (repression into the unconscious). The same event, especially in the case of a thought, impression or fantasy, would likely not be experienced as traumatic by an adult. As a general rule, adults are much better able to make sense of and manage their experiences than babies or young children due to the maturity and sophistication of the adult mind. Repressed memories are relegated to the unconscious; once there, they function according to the laws of primary process. This means that they operate and are represented in the unconscious mind like symbols and images in dreams. Through psychoanalysis, aspects of the repressed unconscious can begin to emerge and be understood and worked through. This process relieves the patient of his or her symptoms. For example, for a young child, seeing his or her mother’s love for a new baby sibling is often so painful that this experience is repressed by the older sibling. The birth of a second or subsequent baby is generally framed as a happy occasion for the family, so much so that people often underestimate its devastating significance for the other siblings (especially if they are young). If the other children’s mixed feelings about a new sibling are not acknowledged and sensitively managed, this might lead to problems with unresolved sibling rivalry. As an adult, such an individual might become, for example, a highly competitive person with no tolerance for any vulnerability, leading to many problems in his or her life. Paradoxically, the person could react by becoming extremely passive and hopeless, never daring to compete for anything. These defensive reactions may become set into personality structure. Psychological defences initially arise as an attempt to protect the individual from having to re-experience early pain; however, the early experience itself is usually repressed. When there has been excessive use of repression and the psychological defences that accompany it, one has less of one’s mind freely available to engage with the present in a spontaneous, non-defensive manner. Many people dispute the idea of an unconscious part of the mind, especially because it is not empirically measurable. However, the idea of the unconscious has powerful explanatory power in relation to thoughts and behaviours all people have that are otherwise inexplicable. In mentally healthy individuals, the unconscious can be most easily seen in dreams, jokes, and parapraxes (that is, apparent mistakes, including slips of the tongue that have hidden meanings behind them). Freud believed that thoughts and ideas that people are unable to express in waking life or conversation often slip out in behaviour that initially seems accidental or confusing. For example, a woman who is normally organised cannot find her car keys, which leads to her missing an important job interview. Upon deeper reflection, she realises that she had not really wanted the job but had applied for it because her father had been enthusiastic about it that she had not wanted to disappoint him. In losing her keys, her subconscious wish was fulfilled (not even being interviewed for the job) without her having to disagree with her father and risk losing his love and approval (her unconscious fear). Freud used these observable phenomena to convince sceptics of the existence of the unconscious part of the mind. In thinking about the Freudian explanation of what makes jokes funny, consider the material of a comedian such as Trevor Noah. Noah’s jokes are premised on exposing certain social truths in South Africa and beyond. These truths can be about difficult subjects: Noah tackles subjects such as racism or apartheid. So, how does his audience come to find these very serious topics humorous? Freud believed that for something to be funny there needed to be a difficult or forbidden truth exposed through the joke. This difficult, forbidden material is allowed to surface through the clever structure of a joke. Freud believed that the unconscious part of the mind functions differently from the conscious part. He termed the unconscious workings the ‘primary process’, to describe this primitive, instinctual mode of functioning. One can come closest to a sense of primary process functioning in the unreal and fantastical images and symbols of dreams; in the dream realm, the laws of nature and linear logic do not apply. **The conscious** As human beings, we have awareness of our own existence; we can observe and think about our own reactions, feelings and behaviours. This is called subjectivity. One can, for example, reflect on one’s thoughts and behaviours, rather than just reacting automatically and/or instinctively in every situation. In one’s normal state of consciousness, one’s awareness of one’s conscious mind leads one to assume that others have the same experience of their minds. This is an identificatory process; one thinks, ‘They are like me.’ Being aware of oneself in this way allows one to make inferences about others and oneself, but not to explain everything that others do, or everything one does. This challenge of understanding the many different manifestations and causes of human behaviour is the reason for personality theories in the first place. One is easily aware of one’s own conscious mind – that is, all that one is thinking about or paying attention to at any given time. The conscious mind is the part of the mind that most other personality theories focus on exclusively. The term ‘conscious mind’ encompasses one’s thoughts, beliefs, and motivations, and can therefore be easily measured empirically. However, the most significant thrust of Freud’s theories relates to his ideas about the unconscious part of the mind, which he believed comprises the greatest proportion of it (Freud, 1915b, 1915c). **The preconscious** According to Freud, the third part of the mind, the preconscious, performs an essential function for the organisation of the psyche/mind. The preconscious can be thought of as being situated between the conscious and unconscious, containing thoughts, memories and ideas that one can recall (more or less easily). Thus, a preconscious idea is one that becomes available to consciousness once one turns one’s attention to it (see the box that follows). In addition, the preconscious functions as a censor between the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind, thus organising it. **In your own experience** Think about what you ate for breakfast yesterday, or your favourite movie. In so doing, you have accessed the contents of your preconscious mind. #### 5.4.1.2 Second Topography In 1923, Freud introduced his second topography or structural theory, which he added to the first. This elaboration allowed for a fuller vision and explanation of the workings of the mind. The second topography comprised the following agencies of the mind: - The id - The ego - The superego. **The id** Freud theorised that the oldest, most basic mental structure encompasses the psychical expression of people’s inherited biological constitution as human beings. He called this storehouse of basic instincts the id. The id comprises the impressions made on the psyche by our drives and instincts as they emanate from our bodily organs, physiological structures and hormonal processes. The id has been described as a ‘a cauldron full of seething excitations’ (Freud, 1923, p. 73). It functions according to primary process and the laws of the pleasure principle. At the start of life, mental functioning is primitive. Freud called this type of early mental functioning ‘primary process’. Primary process is governed by the pleasure principle – that is, the infant strives for pleasure and avoids pain (or unpleasure) at all costs (Freud, 1923). However, the pleasure principle does not lose its powerful sway after infancy or childhood. Freud believed that it is natural for physiological tensions such as hunger, thirst or sexual arousal to build up in the human organism (and in animals too), and that these need to be released as they cause unpleasure. The satisfaction of these innate needs leads to the release of tension; this is experienced as pleasure. Thus, Freud envisaged a bodily economy based on the laws of physics to explain the workings of the body-mind. This was called the economic principle. For Freud, hungry infants, as yet unaware of their mother’s role in nurturing them, would hallucinate an image of a breast to try to satisfy their hunger. Primitive hallucinatory wish fulfilment, as a way to get one’s needs met, is soon outgrown, due to its obvious ineffectiveness. However, it is retained in the unconscious and appears in people’s dreams, where – under the rule of the primary process – anything at all can happen. **The ego** In direct contrast to the primitive workings discussed above is secondary process, the characteristic mode of functioning of the sophisticated conscious mind and, specifically, the agency of the mind called the ego. Freud believed that the ego began to develop out of the id during earliest infancy, in response to the challenges of the external world. Such a challenge might be, as mentioned above, when the hungry infant fails to satisfy its hunger (which governs secondary process) – that is, the logical laws that govern reality. Thus, children must learn how to manipulate their bodies purposefully and to communicate with others meaningfully to have their needs met. Certain psychic functions fall under the ambit of the ego – for example, one’s ability to pay attention, to learn things, and to make judgements that guide one’s actions. Indeed, thinking is an ego function. Ego awareness extends to sensation from inside the body (bodily states) and mind (mental states), and to phenomena from the outside world (perception). The ego can be thought of as an executive agency functioning as an intermediary between id drives and the challenges and frustrations of the external world (Freud, 1923). In fact, Freud famously called the ego a slave to three masters (Freud, 1923); the ego needs constantly to manage conflict arising from the following: - The demands of the id - The challenges of the external world - The rules of the superego (discussed below). In light of these considerations, the principal job of the ego is to ensure the individual’s survival, and its secondary job is to facilitate the experiencing of as much pleasure and as little pain as possible (the pleasure principle). **The superego** When id drives such as hunger and sexual tension build up excessively, the individual feels discomfort or unpleasure. It is the ego’s job to decide which behaviour would be best to allow the discharge of unpleasurable feelings. Our earliest human ancestors may have taken food and sex as it presented itself. Nowadays, however, people cannot do such things without social sanction; we learn what is socially and culturally acceptable through observation of, and guidance from, parents and important authority figures. People internalise these lessons, which come to comprise a special differentiated part of the ego called the superego (Freud, 1923). The fully developed superego is seen as the third agency of the mind; it comprises: - an ego-ideal (an internal guide towards what one aspires to be) - a conscience (an internal reprimanding function that is operative when one behaves transgressively). **In your own experience** Think about what you ate for breakfast yesterday, or your favourite movie. In so doing, you have accessed the contents of your preconscious mind. #### 5.4.1.3 Infantile or Childhood Sexuality Freud the physician and biological researcher always emphasized that the human being functions as a unified bio-psychological development; that is, that the biological and the psychological are entirely intertwined. He studied all of human development, with an emphasis on the most prominent biological development at any given time and how this shaped, and was shaped by, evolving psychological processes. Freud stipulated that sexual instincts were present from birth, and that infants are sexual beings. He termed this infantile sexuality. As might be imagined, this idea was received with outrage, horror and disbelief. However, it is important to understand what Freud meant by infantile sexuality. Freud was not equating sexuality with sexual acts as they are known nowadays, but rather with the infant’s ability to take bodily or sensual pleasure. Infantile sexuality is associated with the developing zones of the body, which – each in their turn – become a focal point of development. He termed the zones that could give pleasure ‘erogenous zones’. Examples of these are the mouth, the anus and the genitals. However, even the skin is a source of pleasure. At the beginning of life, the infant’s entire body is a source of pleasure because development has just begun. Freud said that the infantile is polymorphously perverse at this stage – that is, able to take pleasure from any part of the body. Once again this was probably not the best term to use, as it elicited (and still elicits) indignation. As development progresses, a different zone comes to the fore, and the child’s sexual energy – or libido – will be shaped by both the physiological maturational process and the relational happenings during development. #### 5.4.1.4 The Psychosexual Stages of Development Freud proposed five psychosexual stages or phases of development. At each phase, a specific bodily zone is prominent, and the libido or sexual-drive energy is concentrated in one area, due to the physical maturational dominance of that area. So, for example, in early infancy the mouth and lips are the most important bodily area, and feeding is the primary experience. In the developmental stages, the child does not merely learn how to physically master his or her body but also takes pleasure from the stimulation of this particular area. Freud postulated that psychic energy or libido was a part of somatic development – as the body matures, the libidinal/sexual current (life energy) is also guided or shaped. Freud was an evolutionist, so he saw the end point of physical and psychological maturity as putting the individual in the best possible state to be able to procreate. Thus, if an individual progressed healthily through the psychosexual stages, most of his or her libidinal, sexual interest would be genital, and he or she would seek a partner with whom to have a fulfilling sexual relationship. Freud’s model is based on the heterosexual one; however, he believed that all individuals are innately bisexual.. The male Oedipus complex: Freud thought the little boy aged three to five becomes aware of his father’s relationship with his mother, and begins to see him as a nuisance or rival for her affections. The little boy wants his mother for himself, and in his little mind he can compete with his father. During this period, the little boy experiences passionately loving feelings towards his mother and will show off his newly developed physical prowess (for example, being able to ride a bicycle, doing cartwheels, etc.) in the hope of winning her over as his exclusive love object. As this stage progresses, however, the boy becomes aware of his small size and strength as compared to his father. He starts to fear that his competitive feelings will lead to his being attacked or harmed by his father. Freud coined the term ‘castration anxiety’ to convey the little boy’s fear that his father could cut off his penis as a punishment for his competitive claims on his mother. Freud said that the inception of castration anxiety was associated with the little boy's seeing a little girl's genitals and concluding that she had been castrated. He thus becomes very afraid that this might happen to him. Freud said that there was much room for fixation during this extremely trying stage. Ultimately, the little boy is able to find resolution of the stage by identifying with his father; thus, he is no longer a rival. In this way, castration anxiety is managed; the boy consoles himself that, although his mother belongs to his father, when he grows up to be a man like his father, he will have a woman like his mother for himself. The female Oedipus complex: Freud’s concept of the female Oedipus complex is more complicated than that of the male. Freud proposed that when the little girl observed the male genital (of a brother, friend or father), she would feel that her genitals were different, less prominent. Freud said that, in time, the little girl would start to feel that her genital organ was inferior to that of the male. Certainly, at the time of Freud’s writing, males and females had vastly different opportunities, rights and freedoms (sexually, educationally and professionally). In those days, a little girl in this psychosexual stage would have the dawning awareness of the differential treatment accruing to those with, and without, a penis. The significance of the penis was socioculturally determined. Thus, Freud believed, to resolve her Oedipus complex the girl would need to accept a passive role in relation to the male. Once again, Freud did not promote this, but rather observed it. He famously believed that female development was far more complex and, even, mysterious concluding he would never solve the mystery, ‘what does a woman want?’. Why did Freud believe that female development is more complex?: For the first three years of life, the love object of children of both sexes is the mother. In his Oedipal stage, the boy progresses from wanting to have his mother as his love object to satisfying himself with knowing he will get someone like her primarily in her father. In Freud's heteronormative model, but love is not a fixed and unwavering phenomenon, in course of human development it should be remembered that Freud believed all individuals were bisexual by nature), a baby progresses from having her mother as her primary love object to getting someone like her (though not prescribing, ideally, a husband, as many of Freud's theorists later came to emphasize) - a heterosexual relationship. Freud felt that the little girl became disenchanted and/or angry with her mother for not giving her a penis, either because she believed her mother was incapable of doing so, or because she believed her mother had chosen not to. The little girl experiences penis envy and strives to correct her penis-less state. Penis envy causes the little girl to feel less loving towards her mother and more loving towards her father. She is aware that he has a penis, and hopes that he will give her one of her own. When these hopes are thwarted, her wish for her own penis is transformed into the wish for a baby – a penis substitute. During the (phallic-clitoral) Oedipal stage, the little girl invests passionate loving feelings in her father and sees her mother as a rival. However, because the girl does not have a penis, she does not suffer castration anxiety in the manner of the boy. Her Oedipus complex is resolved by her fear that she will lose her mother’s love, which she still values. Thus, the Oedipus complex in girls is resolved when the little girl identifies with her mother in the hope that one day she will grow up to be a woman like her mother and be married to a man like her father. Freud proposed that powerful, unresolved penis envy would affect adult personality by manifesting in sexual or relationship problems and symptoms. Freud believed that the ‘heir’ to the Oedipus complex in both sexes was the superego. The superego is established when the child has relinquished his/her passionate, possessive love for the opposite sex parent and identified with the parent of the same sex. **The latency stage (six years to puberty)** Following on from the enormous challenges and mental developments of the Oedipal stage, the child goes through a stage in which mental activities outstrip sexual desires. From six years old to puberty, children are highly receptive to learning and are usually quite obedient to parents and authority figures. Freud felt that this phase was the calm before the storm of puberty. He said that the development of sexuality was diphasic: it had two peaks separated by latency, which is a period of intense cognitive development (Freud, 1905). Children learn to use the defence of sublimation (the redirection of libidinal energy), investing their energies in educational or creative pursuits. Intellectual, artistic and sporting activities are the focus during latency. Once again, there