MEP - Freud's Stages and the Neo-Freudians Lesson

The Psychosexual Stages

Freud believed that people progress through what he called psychosexual stages of development. There are five stages, and you should know them all for the AP exam. By progressing through these stages, the foundations for adult personality are established. During early childhood, we pass through the oral, anal, and phallic stages. In late childhood, the latency stage and the genital stage begin in adolescence. So, according to Freud, personality is formed by adolescence.

These age-related stages focus on a different area of the body that is concerned with seeking pleasure and gratification. It begins when we are born, and most needs are met through oral gratification. Next, the child achieves gratification through toilet training and learning to control their bodily functions. During the phallic stage, the child seeks to identify with the same-sex parent and becomes possessive of the opposite-sex parent.  

At each stage, the developmental conflict that the child is faced with must be resolved before moving on to the next stage. Parents can influence these resolutions by overindulging or by frustrating the child's expressions. Freud believed that the timing of the child-rearing event and how the parent interacts with the child during these struggles have a lasting influence on personality development. If a conflict is left unresolved it can be the source of maladaptive behavior as an adult.

If frustrated, the child is left with unmet needs that are reflected in adult characteristics. If overindulged, the child may have difficulty moving on to the next stage. This leaves the child in a stage of fixation (Describes a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier stage of psychosexual development.). For example, if a child is weaned before they are ready, they may develop an oral fixation. This would be characterized by overeating, smoking, chewing gum or fingernails, and even expressing sarcasm.

Learn more about the psychosexual stages below.

Neo-Freudians

During the 1900's Freud had many followers who would later go on to develop their own theories of personality while still recognizing many of Freud's basic notions. These theorists would later be known as the Neo-Freudians and their theories are part of psychoanalytic theory. There were several key points from Freud's theory that the Neo-Freudians agreed upon and several that they did not.

There are a few key Neo-Freudians that you should know. *Note Erik Erikson whom we studied in the Development module was Neo-Freudian. Now would be a suitable time to go back and view the tenets of his theory.

Alfred Adler

Alfred Adler was a sickly child who was often bullied. Fortunately, through determination and challenging work, he overcame these struggles and began studying medicine. It was during this time that he was introduced to Freud's theory. From the beginning, Adler disagreed with many of the basic ideas of Freud's theory. He too believed that childhood was a crucial factor in one's personality, but that the focus should be social and not sexual. He goes on to place emphasis on the importance of conscious thought processes and social motives.

Adler believed that striving for superiority (the desire to improve oneself, master challenges, and move toward self-perfection and self-realization) was the most fundamental human motive. He believes our motive to strive for superiority derives from feelings of inferiority we experience as a child who is helpless and depends on others. If we are unable to compensate for these weaknesses, we will develop an inferiority complex that is characterized by a general sense of inadequacy. If we overcompensate for our feelings, we may develop a superiority complex in which we exaggerate our feelings of accomplishment.

Karen Horney

Karen Horney emigrated from Germany during the Great Depression and in her studies in the United States noticed a distinct difference between what caused her German patient's anxiety versus what was causing her American patient's anxiety. Most Americans were more worried about their job and economic situation than the sexual energy that Freud stressed. Thus, Horney concluded that stress from cultural and social factors was a large part of personality development that Freud ignored.

She also went on to stress the importance of relationships as we grow up, especially that of the parent and child. According to Horney, disturbances in these important relationships are what cause anxiety and psychological problems. To deal with these basic anxieties she described three basic patterns of behavior that one would use to defend themselves.

1. Move towards anxiety - Attempt to secure approval and affection
2. Move away from anxiety - Have an excessive need for self-sufficiency and detachment
3. Move against anxiety - Characterized by a need for power and competition

Carl Jung

Carl Jung spent a good deal of time working with Freud but, as the other Neo-Freudians, broke away from many of Freud's ideas and developed his own. He, like others, rejected the notion that we are motivated by sex and aggression but did embrace Freud's idea of the unconscious. He further developed the idea of the unconscious to describe it as actually being divided into two parts: the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious (a shared or inherited well of memory traces from our species' history). The personal unconscious is the same idea that describes Freud's idea of the unconscious. The collective unconscious however is passed down through the species and explains certain themes and similarities we see between all cultures.

This idea of the collective unconscious is what makes Jung's theory unique. The collective unconscious contains archetypes that he defined as universal patterns, symbols, or concepts that we all share. Some examples of archetypes include the hero, the mother, the youth, the mentor, etc.

 

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