The Winding Path

The Psychoanalytic Perspective

The psychoanalytic perspective looks at the conscious and unconscious processes that influence our development. Most people have heard of Sigmund Freud, most famous for the sexual focus of his theories, in particular the Oedipus complex. It’s really hard to take someone seriously after they tell you that you want to have sex with your mum but are scared your dad will chop off your penis. And that if you disagree you’re repressing your feelings. Perhaps even harder is not allowing yourself to be distracted by such oversimplifications.

And perhaps more important was his revelation of just how much our behaviour is shaped by unconscious processes. While many aspects of his theories and approach to psychological therapy are now considered invalid, both his theories and approach to therapy have made significant contributions to our understanding of ourselves.

Here is a very brief summary of some of the main parts of his theory. Firstly, Freud proposed that our minds can be imagined to have three levels:

• Conscious
  Your conscious mind contains the thoughts currently within your awareness. These words you’re reading. The distracting thoughts about what you’re going to eat for lunch.
• Preconscious
  Your preconscious mind contains information which isn’t within your awareness, but could easily be. What you ate for breakfast. The tasks your boss is expecting you to do instead of reading this blog.
• Unconscious
  Your unconscious mind contains all the rest. Everything you know which you can’t easily bring into your awareness. The name of that kid you played with during that holiday when you were five. The date of your anniversary.

He also proposed another three concepts which can be thought of as parts of the mind, but which are really labels for similar modes of mental activity:

• Id
  The instinctual part of your mind, which Freud considered mostly sexual and aggressive. It works on the pleasure principle and seeks immediate gratification. It operates entirely within the unconscious mind.
• Ego
  The rational part of your mind. It operates mostly within the conscious mind and it deals with what goes on in the environment, working on the reality principle.
• Superego
  Your conscience, and what Freud called the ego ideal. The former results from punishments and warnings, producing feelings of guilt, and the latter from rewards, producing feelings of pride. It operates within all parts of the mind, though mostly the preconscious and conscious.

Finally, Freud proposed five stages of development through infancy to puberty. His theory suggests that the first few years of a person’s life are very important for later development. It states that we each go through all stages, in this order, and that problems at any particular stage can manifest as significant problems later in life:

• Oral
  Here we get much pleasure from sticking things in our mouth, until about 18 months old.
  
  “Why yes, I do enjoy chewing on your mobile phone, thank you Daddy dearest!”
• Anal
  At this stage we get pleasure from holding it in and releasing, between 18 and 36 months old.
  
  “Look look Mummy! I did poopies!”
• Phallic
  Oh yes, even children as young as those between 3 and 6 years old enjoy touching themselves. Or rocking back and forth against something. And you don’t have to take my word for it. This is where Freud proposed that the Oedipus complex develops.
  
  “Mmmmmm”
• Latent
  Freud suggested that between the ages of around 6 to 12 children’s sexual instincts are repressed. Girls and boys generally ignore each other.
  
  “Ewww, girl germs!”
• Genital
  Finally the sexual urges reappear at puberty and there is a focus on sexual pleasure through intercourse. This stage continues onwards from puberty.
  
  “Good, my parents are gone. Do you wanna go up to my room and fool around?”

Development through each of the stages occurs as a result of biological maturation, i.e., the natural physical processes involved in growing up prompt development. Freud showed that the early stages of life were very important for how we turn out as adults, though he wasn’t always right about how and why. According to his theory we aren’t as greatly influential over the direction of our development as are family and society.

There’s a hell of a lot more to Freud’s theories, some of which I’ll mention when I get to Personality Psychology, but for now if you want to read more about Freud this page is a great place to start. He had a lot of controversial ideas, controversial in both his time and ours, but he popularised psychology, encouraging others to reach greater levels of understanding.

The Psychosocial Perspective

Erik Erikson is less well known (in fact I hadn’t heard of him until I began studying Psychology), but it was his work which was the first to expand upon Freud’s, as well as clearing up a couple of issues. Like Freud he said that we naturally progress through stages, though he proposed eight, not stopping at puberty as Freud did, but including the continuing development which we know occurs through our entire lives.

At each stage we have a task to perform, a task which involves reaching a balance between opposite ends of a particular scale. You’ll see what that means in the description of each stage:

1. Infant - 0 to 1 years
   At this stage our task is to balance trust and mistrust. Through our interactions with the world, and mainly with our parents, we come to either believe that it is a safe place, or we become wary of it. Too much trust and we risk becoming gullible, and too little and we risk becoming withdrawn.
   
   Erikson proposed that the perfect balance results in developing hope, or the belief that things will always work out ok in the end.
2. Toddler - 2 to 3 years
   Here we attempt to balance autonomy against shame and doubt. Our parents’ reactions to how we interact with the world create the foundation for our self-esteem. If they’re too limiting or even too helpful, we start to believe that things are too hard for us, that we’re not good enough, and we stop trying. On the other hand if we’re given complete freedom we might become impulsive, not considering actions which may lead to harm.
   
   The right balance allows us to develop willpower, and the determination to put our abilities to their best uses.
3. Preschooler - 3 to 6 years
   By now we’ve learnt it’s ok to explore the world a little, and so it’s time to balance initiative against guilt. Initiative results from encouragement to imagine, fantasise, and to try things out, to turn our imagination into reality. But if we do something wrong we’re probably going to be told off, and that results in guilt. We start to learn when we’ve done something bad, even without immediately being scolded.
   
   Too much initiative without much guilt and we become ruthless, not caring about what happens as a result of achieving our goals. Too much guilt and not enough initiative leads to inhibition, where we fear trying anything because we fear failure, or ridicule.
   
   A balance results in the development of purpose or courage, as an understanding of our abilities, limitations and desires.
4. School-age child - 7 to 12 years
   At stage four we learn to balance industry and inferiority. Our social circle expands and with it our responsibilities. Being industrious means enjoying coming up with a plan and following it through to the end. But if we don’t succeed or are made fun of for our attempts, we may feel inferior. Too much industry and our breadth of experience becomes stunted. Too much inferiority and we stop trying to learn or try new things.
   
   A good balance leads to competency, the feeling that we can achieve what we put our mind to, tempered by enough humility to prevent arrogance.
5. Adolescence - 12 to 18 years or so
   During this stage we figure out how to balance ego identity with role-confusion. There are many different roles which society either offers, or expects us to take on. We question our own identity, and if we favour our identity too strongly and become caught up in a role that suits it, we risk developing fanaticism and intolerance. On the other hand if we are too confused about our role in society we risk repudiation, which is the rejection of a need for identity. Paradoxically this usually leads to joining groups which provide give us a specific identity, one which is generally anti-mainstream.
   
   The right balance at this stage leads to fidelity, which is loyalty to society’s standards, but a loyalty which acknowledges and tries to improve any perceived problems with those standards, in the best interests of all.
6. Young adult - 20’s
   Now we try to balance intimacy against isolation. Too much intimacy leads to promiscuity, where relationships are formed freely but are shallow. Too much isolation leads to willful exclusion from social interaction, often resulting in hate as a mask for loneliness.
   
   Erikson called the balance at this stage ‘love’, referring to mutual willingness to put aside differences for the sake of the other, whether it be in a romantic relationship or a platonic one.
7. Middle adult - late 20’s to 50’s
   Our journey now allows us to attempt to balance generativity and stagnation. Stagnation refers to not caring for anyone and thus not contributing to society. Generativity refers to love directed towards future generations. This doesn’t just involve caring for children or grandchildren, but it could also mean anything which benefits future generations, including writing an informative blog. Ahem.
   
   Too much generativity and you risk overextension. That’s what happens when you try to do too much in too little time, neglecting all those important things like sleep and breakfast. Little do you realise zombies aren’t much help to anyone. Too much stagnation and you risk rejectivity. You don’t care about others and no you longer participate in society. Zombies are more appreciated.
   
   If you achieve balance at this stage you learn to care for others appropriately and willingly.
8. Adult - 50’s and beyond
   The final stage involves balancing ego integrity and despair. Ego integrity means accepting your life and your approaching death, and despair means giving in to regret and fear. Erikson seems to say that too much ego integrity is actually false integrity which comes from believing in the integrity of one’s ego without actually acknowledging old age. Thus too much integrity leads to presumption. Too much despair leads to disdain, directed either at yourself or other people. More like a zombie than ever before.
   
   You can probably guess what balance at this stage leads to. Wisdom. Of course wisdom isn’t only available to the elderly, but in this case it refers to the strength to face death without fear, and the ability to lend that strength to others by showing them they don’t have to fear life.

You can see that in many of these stages we have a significant part to play in our own development. How we deal with the challenges of each stage determines how we grow, and how well equipped we are to deal with the challenges of subsequent stages. However as Freud also showed us, other people do have a significant impact.

If you’re interested in reading more about Erikson, you could start with this page.

Onwards

Both Freud and Erikson believed that we all moved through the stages they proposed, and in the order they proposed, and at very close to the ages they stated. We now have much evidence that there is much more flexibility in our development, but their theories did help us to see and understand the different phases we’re very likely to pass through. Further, if we look at where we are in life at the moment, and where we have been, and then look at the problems we face in moving forward, we can use these theories to help us figure out a more beneficial direction.

Next up the Biological Perspective and a look at the question of nurture versus nature, genes versus environment.

Related entries:

• Introduction to Human Development
• Introduction to Human Development: Biological Perspective
• Introduction to Human Development: Social-Emotional Perspective - Part 1
• Introduction to Human Development: Social-Emotional Perspective - Part 2
• Introduction to Human Development: Cognitive Perspective
• Introduction to Human Development: Socio-cultural Perspective

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 4:17 pm and is filed under Human Development, Learning, Personal Development, Psychology, Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.