Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development
Freud’s theory of psychological development described how the personality developed over the course of childhood. While the theory is well-known in psychology, it is also one of the most controversial. Freud believed that personality developed through a series of childhood stages in which the pleasure-seeking energies of the id become focused on certain erogenous zones. This psychosexual energy – “libido” – was posited as one of the basic primal instincts.
Psychoanalytic theory suggested that personality is mostly established by the age of five. Early experiences play a large role in personality development and continue to influence behavior later in life. If these psychosexual stages were completely …show more content…
A number of simple formulas, which to begin with seemed to meet our needs, have later turned out to be inadequate….Here, when we are dealing with anxiety, you see everything in a state of flux and change.”
By the 1890s, Freud had come to believe that the symptoms displayed by many of his patients were the product, not of disease of the physical nervous system, but rather of their failure to deal with invisible, unconscious and primarily sexual, psychological drives. This insight became the cornerstone of psychoanalysis, which, until at least the 1970s, remained the predominant form of treatment. In 1895, Freud’s interest in anxiety was marked by the publication of his essay “On the Grounds of Detaching a Particular Syndrome from Neurasthenia under the Description Anxiety.” As the title indicates, the principal purpose of this paper was to distinguish what Freud called “anxiety neurosis” from other forms of nervous illness or …show more content…
Realistic anxiety helps us. Neurotic anxiety makes each life miserable. In The Integrity of the Personality (1961), Anthony Storr said: “Freud and Jung, the two most original and creative figures in modern psychiatry, were both proscribed by the Nazis…for both, though holding widely divergent views, upheld the value of the individual
Freud’s theory of psychological development described how the personality developed over the course of childhood. While the theory is well-known in psychology, it is also one of the most controversial. Freud believed that personality developed through a series of childhood stages in which the pleasure-seeking energies of the id become focused on certain erogenous zones. This psychosexual energy – “libido” – was posited as one of the basic primal instincts.
Psychoanalytic theory suggested that personality is mostly established by the age of five. Early experiences play a large role in personality development and continue to influence behavior later in life. If these psychosexual stages were completely …show more content…
A number of simple formulas, which to begin with seemed to meet our needs, have later turned out to be inadequate….Here, when we are dealing with anxiety, you see everything in a state of flux and change.”
By the 1890s, Freud had come to believe that the symptoms displayed by many of his patients were the product, not of disease of the physical nervous system, but rather of their failure to deal with invisible, unconscious and primarily sexual, psychological drives. This insight became the cornerstone of psychoanalysis, which, until at least the 1970s, remained the predominant form of treatment. In 1895, Freud’s interest in anxiety was marked by the publication of his essay “On the Grounds of Detaching a Particular Syndrome from Neurasthenia under the Description Anxiety.” As the title indicates, the principal purpose of this paper was to distinguish what Freud called “anxiety neurosis” from other forms of nervous illness or …show more content…
Realistic anxiety helps us. Neurotic anxiety makes each life miserable. In The Integrity of the Personality (1961), Anthony Storr said: “Freud and Jung, the two most original and creative figures in modern psychiatry, were both proscribed by the Nazis…for both, though holding widely divergent views, upheld the value of the individual