Psychosexual Theory of Sigmund Freud and Roots of Psychopathology
Psychoanalytic Approach
The famous physicist and psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud gave the psychodynamic approach to psychology which considers the role of unconscious thoughts, feelings and memories to determine and understand human behavior. He particularly focused on the unconscious resolved conflicts, childhood/past experiences and developmental stages to be the determinants of adulthood personality.
Structure of Personality
On the other hand, Freud gave the structural components of personality i.e., Id, Ego and Superego. Either the interaction or the conflict among these components determine the personality of a human. For Freud, all the human’s behaviors are driven by unconscious Id forces that work on the pleasure principle, forcing a person for immediate gratification to his primitive needs by all means. E.g., Sexual or aggressive desires. With personality development, humans learn to address the strict morals and obligations of society through the Superego component which demands perfection or otherwise brings a sense of guilt, also triggered by the unconscious mind. However, a healthy human mind develops the ability to compromise the two by allowing the Ego component of personality to mediate by realistically satisfying the both extreme components. According to Freud, the conflict or psychopathology occurs when Id and Superego are dominated or fail to be mediated by the Ego component of the personality.
Psychosexual theory
Freud gave the psychosexual theory of personality development in the early 1900s. According to him, most of the personality develops considerably up to 5 years from child’s birth. The psychosexual theory describes the personality development as the psychosexual maturation of child through different stages i.e., oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latent stage and genital stage. Each stage is related with the pleasure (erogenous) zone associated to the certain part of the body and the gratification by stimulating them.
The initial three stages are said to be highly important for personality development since these are responsible for making up the later stages and reflect in adult personality. However, failure to resolve the conflicts and to fulfil the libidinal impulse on any stage may result in fixation or lock at that stage and in a longer run the psychopathological problems in adulthood personality. Libidinal Fixation is defined as “the condition in which libidinal energy persists in one of the psychosexual stages due to over or under gratification in that stage.”
Psychosexual theory and its relation with the roots of Psychopathology
In case of over or under gratification at any stage may result in either Id or Superego dominance and deprived sense of Ego functioning. Thus, the prevalence of the unconscious components of mind continues to intervene with the conscious functioning of mind later in life. Hereby, in special reference to psychoanalysis, the psychopathological issues undermine the ability to cope with the reality and may result in psychosis. To some extent, childhood experience of his gradually developing world also contributes to the health status of adult personality.
- At oral stage, the libidinal fixation may result in Id dominance and regress to mouth as a point of fixation. The child or adult continues to seek oral pleasure after this as a coping tool of regression to mitigate the anxiety due to stressful events. In case of over gratification, adults show excessive oral activities e.g., eating, drinking, smoking, kissing etc. with over-dependent, optimistic and gullible personalities. In case of under gratification, aggressive behaviors are observed with excessive pessimistic, sarcastic and manipulative behavior to feel better about themselves.
- At anal stage, the demand of toilet training and controlling the time and place of defecation is a first experience to external reality and societal demands. Libidinal fixation due to harsh toilet training may result in anal-retentive personality in adult which is stingy, stubborn and extremely ordered, compulsive tidiness Superego dominance. On the other hand, lenient toilet training may result in anal-expulsive (aggressive) personality in adulthood which is disordered, careless and sadistic. (Id dominance)
- At the phallic stage, the real battle between the Id, Ego and Superego begins, hence the stage has the most complex conflict to resolve. The anxieties felt by boys and girls at this age result in their identification with their fathers and mother respectively with a strong sense of Superego. The characteristics of this stage reflect in establishing the adult social relations with opposite sex. Poor resolution may result in high superego in boys and envious or rejected feelings in girls. Strong resolution of conflict may root narcissism in adulthood.
- By the age of 5 to 6 years, children’s learning about Id, Ego and Superego completes. The latency stage is much likely to be ego defensive and the child survives by sublimating the sexual impulses in productive activities, hobbies and sports etc. (Ego dominant-therefore least conflicting stage).
- The genital stage is the either a healthy or unhealthy product of initial stages. If genital stage has survived the former stages without fixation, then the teen will be leading a psychologically healthy life through sublimation initially and then in a healthy adult social relationship later (Ego dominance). In case of fixation in previous stages, individual may suffer and cope by regressing through Id/Superego-oriented behaviors, triggered by unresolved conflicts of childhood. The relationship problems are observed.
References
https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontopsychology/chapter/11-2-the-origins-of-personality/
