Freud

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Freud
World War I 1914-1918
Albert Einstein 1879-1955
1855 Walt Whitman -- published the first edition
of his famous "Leaves of Grass"
1856 Sigmund Freud born in Freiberg
(Czechoslovakia). 1860 Family moves to Vienna.
Theodore Roosevelt 1858-1919
1809-1865 Abraham Lincoln
Benito Mussolini 1883-1945
Booker T. Washington 1856-1915
1896 Freud coined the term Psychoanalysis to
refer to the investigation of the psychological
causes of mental disorders. From these times
hypnotism was increasingly abandoned by Freud in
favour an analysis based upon the patient's flows
of thought. Patient's were encouraged to be
completely uninhibited by any consciousness of
such things as foolishness, repetition, or
outrage, in expressing such flows of thought.
Freud gave the name "free association" to his
investigation of a disturbed patient's
spontaneous flow of thought for decisive clues as
to the cause of their disorder.
1899 The Interpretation of Dreams, the book that
Sigmund Freud regarded as his most important work
was published. Freud discovered that people's
mind's tended to effectively repress memories of
painful events and to resist any attempts to draw
any such memory back into conscious awareness.
Freud seemed to consider that such traumas were
most often related to sex and sexuality. Freud's
interest in unresolved, repressed, resisted,
mental phenomena led him to be increasingly drawn
to the Interpretation of Dreams. Freud considered
that his successful Interpretation of Dreams
began with one of his own in 1895. He gave this
dream the name "The Dream of Irma's injection".
Freud also recognised the existence of "Freudian
slips" where people's utterances, as seemingly
modified by involuntary psychological promptings,
gave important clues as to the true state of
their less-concious minds.
1905 Publishes Three Essays on Sexuality and
Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious.
1923 Publishes The Ego and the Id a final
structrual theory.
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Oral Stage (Age 0 - 1.5)Erogenous Zone in
Focus Mouth Gratifying Activities Nursing -
eating, as well as mouth movement, including
sucking, gumming, biting and swallowing.
Interaction with the Environment To the
infant, the mother's breast not only is the
source of food and drink, but also represents her
love. Because the child's personality is
controlled by the id and therefore demands
immediate gratification, responsive nurturing is
key. Both insufficient and forceful feeding can
result in fixation in this stage. Symptoms of
Oral FixationSmoking Constant chewing on gum,
pens, pencilsNail biting Overeating Drinking
Sarcasm ("the biting personality") and verbal
hostility
BASIC 3 stages of psychosexual development
Phallic Stage (Age 4 - 5) Erogenous Zone in
Focus Genital Gratifying Activities
Masturbation and genital fondling Interaction
with the Environment This is probably the most
challenging stage in a person's psychosexual
development. The key event at this stage,
according to Freud, is the child's feeling of
attraction toward the parent of the opposite sex,
together with envy and fear of the same-sex
parent. In boys, this situation is called the
"Oedipus Complex" (aka the Oedipal Complex),
named after the young man in a Greek myth who
killed his father and married his mother, unaware
of their true identities. In girls, it is called
the "Electra Complex". Boys, in the midst of
their Oedipus Complex, often experience intense
"castration anxiety", which comes from the fear
of punishment from the fathers for their desire
for the mothers. Girls' Electra Complex involves
"penis envy". That is, according to Freud, the
girl believes that she once had a penis but that
it was removed. In order to compensate for its
loss, the girl wants to have a child by her
father. Success or failure in the Oedipus
conflict is at the core of either normal
psychological development or psychological
disorder. If a child is able to successfully
resolve the conflict, he or she will have learnt
to control their envy and hostility and begin to
identify with and model after the parent of their
own sex, and are ready to move on to the next
developmental stage. Phallic Fixation For
men Anxiety and guilty feelings about sex, fear
of castration, and narcissistic personality. For
women It is implied that women never progress
past this stage fully and will always maintain a
sense of envy and inferiority, although Freud
asserted no certainty regarding women's possible
fixations resulting from this stage. Similarly,
Freud admitted uncertainty on the females'
situation when he constructed the "penis envy"
theory in the first place.
Anal Stage (Age 1.5 - 3) Erogenous Zone in
Focus Anus Gratifying Activities Bowel
movement and the withholding of such movement
Interaction with the Environment The major
event at this stage is toilet training, a process
through which children are taught when, where,
and how excretion is deemed appropriate by
society. Children at this stage start to notice
the pleasure and displeasure associated with
bowel movements. Through toilet training, they
also discover their own ability to control such
movements. Along with it comes the realization
that this ability gives them power over their
parents. That is, by exercising control over the
retention and expulsion of feces, a child can
choose to either grand or resist parents' wishes.
Anal Fixation Anal-Expulsive Personality If
the parents are too lenient and fail to instill
the society's rules about bowel movement control,
the child will derive pleasure and success from
the expulsion. Individuals with a fixation on
this mode of gratification are excessively
sloppy, disorganized, reckless, careless, and
defiant. Anal-Retentive Personality If a child
receives excessive pressure and punishment from
parents during toilet training, he will
experience anxiety over bowl movements and take
pleasure in being able to withhold such
functions. Individuals who fail to progress pass
this stage are obsessively clean and orderly, and
intolerant of those who aren't. They may also be
very careful, stingy, withholding, obstinate,
meticulous, conforming and passive-aggressive.
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Latency (Age 5 - puberty) Erogenous Zone in
Focus None Interactions with the Environment
This is a period during which sexual feelings are
suppressed to allow children to focus their
energy on other aspects of life. This is a time
of learning, adjusting to the social environment
outside of home, absorbing the culture, forming
beliefs and values, developing same-sex
friendships, engaging in sports, etc. This period
of sexual latency lasts five to six years, until
puberty, upon which children become capable of
reproduction, and their sexuality is re-awakened.

5. Genital Stage (From puberty on) Erogenous
Zone in Focus Genital Gratifying Activities
Masturbation and heterosexual relationships
Interaction with the Environment This stage is
marked by a renewed sexual interest and desire,
and the pursuit of relationships. Fixations
This stage does not cause any fixation. According
to Freud, if people experience difficulties at
this stage, and many people do, the damage was
done in earlier oral, anal, and phallic stages.
These people come into this last stage of
development with fixations from earlier stages.
For example, attractions to the opposite sex can
be a source of anxiety at this stage if the
person has not successfully resolved the Oedipal
(or Electra) conflict at the phallic stage.
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OEDIPUS REX A synopsis of the play by
Sophocles Date and circumstances of production
are unknown. It is, however, known that Sophocles
suffered defeat in the contests with this play,
although it is generally regarded as his
masterpiece. SOME twelve years before the action
of the play begins, Oedipus has been made King of
Thebes in gratitude for his freeing the people
from the pestilence brought on them by the
presence of the riddling Sphinx. Since Laius, the
former king, had shortly before been killed,
Oedipus has been further honored by the hand of
Queen Jocasta. Now another deadly pestilence is
raging and the people have come to ask Oedipus to
rescue them as before. The King has anticipated
their need, however. Creon, Jocasta's brother,
returns at the very moment from Apollo's oracle
with the announcement that all will be well if
Laius' murderer be found and cast from the
city. In an effort to discover the murderer,
Oedipus sends for the blind seer, Tiresias. Under
protest the prophet names Oedipus himself as the
criminal. Oedipus, outraged at the accusation,
denounces it as a plot of Creon to gain the
throne. Jocasta appears just in time to avoid a
battle between the two men. Seers, she assures
Oedipus, are not infallible. In proof, she cites
the old prophecy that her son should kill his
father and have children by his mother. She
prevented its fulfillment, she confesses, by
abandoning their infant son in the mountains. As
for Laius, he had been killed by robbers years
later at the junction of three roads on the route
to Delphi. This information makes Oedipus
uneasy. He recalls having killed a man answering
Laius' description at this very spot when he was
fleeing from his home in Corinth to avoid
fulfillment of a similar prophecy. An aged
messenger arrives from Corinth, at this point, to
announce the death of King Polybus, supposed
father of Oedipus, and the election of Oedipus as
king in his stead. On account of the old prophecy
Oedipus refuses to return to Corinth until his
mother, too, is dead. To calm his fears the
messenger assures him that he is not the blood
son of Polybus and Merope, but a foundling from
the house of Laius deserted in the mountains.
This statement is confirmed by the old shepherd
whom Jocasta had charged with the task of
exposing her babe. Thus the ancient prophecy has
been fulfilled in each dreadful detail. Jocasta
in her horror hangs herself and Oedipus stabs out
his eyes. Then he imposes on himself the penalty
of exile which he had promised for the murderer
of Laius.
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Stereotype of Victorians - Sexually uptight -
Thought sex was inherently dirty - Covered the
legs of tables lest the exposed furniture inspire
untoward thoughts and actions. - Freud's emphasis
on sexuality leaves no room for a society that
strives to hide sexuality.
OEDIPUS COMPLEX For Freud, the childhood desire
to sleep with the mother and to kill the father.
Freud describes the source of this complex in
his Introductory Lectures (Twenty-First
Lecture) "You all know the Greek legend of King
Oedipus, who was destined by fate to kill his
father and take his mother to wife, who did
everything possible to escape the oracle's decree
and punished himself by blinding when he learned
that he had none the less unwittingly committed
both these crimes" (16.330). According to Freud,
Sophocles' play, Oedipus Rex, illustrates a
formative stage in each individual's psychosexual
development, when the young child transfers his
love object from the breast (the oral phase) to
the mother. At this time, the child desires the
mother and resents (even secretly desires the
murder) of the father. (The Oedipus complex is
closely connected to the castration complex.)
Such primal desires are, of course, quickly
repressed but, even among the mentally sane, they
will arise again in dreams or in literature.
Among those individuals who do not progress
properly into the genital phase, the Oedipus
Complex, according to Freud, can still be playing
out its psychdrama in various displaced,
abnormal, and/or exaggerated ways.
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CASTRATION COMPLEX The early childhood fear of
castration that Freud and Lacan both saw as an
integral part of our psychosexual development.
The castration complex is closely associated
with the Oedipus complex, according to Freud
"the reaction to the threats against the child
aimed at putting a stop to his early sexual
activities and attributed to his father". The
young child with primitive desires, in coming
face to face with the laws and conventions of
society (including the prohibitions against
incest and murder), will tend to align
prohibition with castration (something that is
sometimes reinforced by parents if they warn
against, for example, masturbation by saying that
the child will in some way be punished bodily,
eg. by going blind). Lacan builds on this
Freudian concept in defining the Law of the
Father.
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In summary Freuds legacy for the 20th century
has been the following ..... To posit sexuality
and gender as a process rather than a pre-given
natural determination. To have brought
sexuality from the confines of nature to the
heart of the modern social and public body. To
have sexualized the child. To have divided the
modern subject such that the core of our gendered
sexuality lies beyond the boundaries of
conscious cognition in the unconscious. To
have founded a modern patriarchal narrative which
integrated nature, sexuality, gender and the
modern social.   -- Foucault, M, (1976), The
History of Sexuality, Vol.1,