you are here: > Self > 7. Mind and self
 
7.12
Freud, Psychoanalysis, Ego And The Development Of Sexual Drive- Lust
  
  The theories of Freud, while suspect in some regard, also hold valuable lessons in the evolution and construct of the ego and the manifestation of sexual drive at different stages of human growth.  
7.12.1 Libido- sexual psychological drive (Freud)  
  The first desire is the desire of sensual pleasure from stimulation, specifically the stimulation of the erogenous zones of the body.  
  The first period of life, up to the age of seven or eight months, is the oral stage, in which the baby gains intense pleasures from nursing, sucking and mouthing. In this stage of development, the libido expresses itself as an oral drive with satisfaction of the drive usually provided by the mother. If this drive is frustrated as when infants are deprived of adequate mothering, the baby;s behaviour reveals its distress; breathing is shallow, crying is exaggerated and there is tension and muscular rigidity. Other babies may become lethargic, their body muscles may grow lax, and tube feeding may even become more necessary. A return to adequate mothering will often relieve these acute symptoms.  
  The second stage of psychosexual development is the anal stage, in which the baby derives pleasure from the process of elimination. For the first few months of life, the eliminative processes are automatic; apparently the baby is unaware of them. As the child matures, there is increasing pleasure in excretion. The parent in our society is likely to frustrate this satisfaction by initiating toilet training, often before the child has either the necessary muscular control or the use of language.  
  Parental discomfort with defecation can provide the growing child with new means of exercising control over the parents. If the child is incontinent, the parents are distressed; if feces are retained and offered at the proper time, the child gains praise and reward. In the Freudian view, the experiences of the child during toilet training can exert profound influence on later adjustment.  
  The third stage in psychosexual development is the phallic stage, occurring between the second and fourth years. In this phase definite signs of sexuality appear in the child, sometimes in the form of overt masturbation, sometimes as a desire for contact with the parent of the opposite sex. At least in our culture, many factors lead to the suppression of this infantile sexuality. Parents may be disturbed by the child's behaviour, and they may avoid answering questions that they find embarrassing or even punish this early form of sexual interest.  
  Partially as a result of parental suppression of early sexuality, the child moves into latency stage in which little direct sexuality is observed. Interests are likely to be centered in sex-typed activities and the child is likely to be negative to members of the opposite sex.  
  The male child often shows strong identification with his father, the girl with her mother. During this period the male child resolves his oedipal relationship to his mother. this relationship, generated out of the child's original closeness to the mother, repre4sents a desire for union with her. Freud reasoned that the child rejects this desire out of fear of retaliation from his father who is a lover competitor.  
  This is the castration complex. The son then sublimates his affection for his mother and turns to an identification with his father. The onset of puberty, which follows the latency period, sees the re-emergence of heterosexual interests as the individual reaches the adult genital stage of psychosexual development.  
7.12.2 The negative reactions to Freud since theories  
  Since Freud first published his theories of sexual psychoanalysis there have been many that have found this line of thinking concerning. One in particular was the eminent psychologist Jung. In more recent times it has been Jung that has been on the ascendancy, while the theories of Freud have gradually waned.  
 
<<Back       Continue>>
 
Copyright © 2010 UCADIA. All rights reserved.