Background on Sigmund Freud: He was a physiologist, medical doctor, psychologist and influential thinker of the early twentieth century. He articulated and refined the concepts of the unconscious, infantile sexuality and repression, and he proposed a tripartite account of the mind’s structure—all as part of a radically new conceptual and therapeutic frame of reference for the understanding of human psychological development and the treatment of abnormal mental conditions.
This term derived from Sigmund Freud's theory of psychosexual stages of development to describe a boy's feelings of desire for his mother and jealousy and anger towards his father. According to Freud's theory, boys have the urge to kill their father, in order to gain possession of his own mother. Basically, boys compete with their father to "win" their mother. The boy views his own father as an enemy who is taking the attention and affection of the mother away from him. Sigmund's theory explores the idea that these feelings occur during the phallic stage of psychosexual development, when the boy is about 3 years old. This stage is important in the formation of sexual identity. Freud's theory is not limited to males only, but also to females. The female equivalent is called the Electra complex.
According to Freud, the boy eventually comes to terms with the fact that his father is physically stronger than him and the boy then experiences castration anxiety. He states that once the child becomes aware of the physical differences between males and females, he assumes that the female's penis has been removed and he fears that his own father will castrate him because he is desiring his mother. The young boy then identifies with his father and gains moral authority, where his urges are suppressed.
My opinion: Quite frankly, I find this theory extremely disturbing. I have never heard anything like it before or even considered it, for neither males nor females. I do, however, understand that the studies of psychology in all its forms have to be considered. Freud may be called a freak for having these theories and for having thought about it so much but as a psychologist, he would not base his theories off of unreliable and nonsensical resources. Clearly he himself experienced these feelings and perhaps even witnessed his own theory on various occasions. Psychology studies are essential because we, as humans, all experience psychological sensations and events daily and must be open to hearing and taking into consideration what psychologists have to say.
I agree with your opinion completely. I am disturbed to ever think that people have sexual attraction to their parents. If anything, I learned from my parents the human qualities that really bother me. Psychoanalysis is incredibly important, however Fraud has been known to alter his case studies to better support his theories. You can read the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/06/science/as-a-therapist-freud-fell-short-scholars-find.html. I’m not denying that it is important to take in consideration what psychologists have to say, but it seems almost detrimental to the advancement of psychology if the psychologist is providing altered evidence.
ReplyDeleteScholars are now looking back on Freud’s famous patient ‘Wolf Man’ (this was a name used to protect the patients identity). Freud claimed to have cured the man through exploring his Oedipus Complex theory. In the 1970s, an interview was released with the ‘Wolf Man’ himself, and he said, “The whole thing looks like a catastrophe. I am in the same state as when I came to Freud, and Freud is no more.[…] I resent being 'propaganda' and 'a showpiece for psychoanalysis.” Since this initial “proof” of the Oedipus Complex, little empirical evidence has been shown to support the Oedipus Complex.
That's an interesting story. I am not saying that I think Freud's theory is legit but I believe that scientists are free to explore a variety of different topics because if not them, they nobody would explore topics.
DeleteMelanie, I agree completely with you as well. However, I still believe that Freud often looked for things that were not really there. By this, I mean that he could have seen a son embracing his mother and would have taken that as sexual desire. Furthermore, times have changed since then, and today people would be ridiculed far too badly for being with ones parent, and therefore this theory has basically stayed in the past, just like Freud.
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