“Evaluate_the_Extent_to_Which_Freud’S_Theory_of_Psychosexual_Development_Can_Help_Us_to_Understand_a_Client’S_Presenting_Issue_”

This essay will evaluate the extent to which Freud’s theory of psychosexual development can help us to understand a client’s presenting issue. To commence I will describe Freud’s psychosexual theory and my understanding of its relationship to adult neurotic behaviour. I will then evaluate Freud’s psychosexual theory to include social implications bearing in mind the broader ethical perspectives. “Freud’s work and theories have contributed towards our views of childhood, personality, and therapy to name, but a few. In 2001, Time Magazine referred to Freud as one of the most important thinkers of the last century. A 2006 Newsweek article called him "history’s most debunked doctor. While his theories have been the subject of considerable controversy and debate, his impact on psychology, therapy, and culture is undeniable”. (http://psychology.about.com). To explore Freud’s psychosexual theory “at the centre of Freud’s psychosexual development is Freud’s concept “sexual instinct”. The fact of the existence of sexual needs in human beings and animals is expressed in biology by the assumption of a “sexual instinct”, on the analogy of the instinct of nutrition that is of hunger, everyday language possesses no counterpart to the word “hunger”, but science makes use of the word “libido” for that purpose”. (Freud, S. (1949). I am not convinced that this is entirely the case, however, is relevant in the overall discussion. I will now look at Freud’s theory of personality. According to Freud, personality is predominantly established by the age of five. Thus early experiences affect the personality development immensely and also continue to influence behavior later in life. Freud believes that from birth every human, has an instinctual sexual appetite referred to as the libido, which is then broken down to five specific stages which all humans go through in a specified order. These stages are as follows: Oral The first stage, oral, occurs at 0-2 years. During this stage the child’s primary source of interaction occurs through the mouth. The child experiences pleasure from the oral stimulation through gratifying activities such as tasting and sucking and because the child is entirely dependent upon its parents for basic needs, i.e. food etc, the child develops a sense of trust and comfort through this oral stimulation. Freud states that conflict could arise at this stage with weaning, as the child must become less dependent upon its parents. If a fixation occurs at this stage, Freud believed the child would grow up with issues with dependency or aggression. Oral fixation can result in problems with drinking, eating, smoking or nail biting. Anal The second stage is the anal phase at 2-4 years of age. During this stage, Freud believed that the primary focus of the libido was focused upon controlling the bladder and bowel movements. Conflict can arise at this stage with toilet training where the child has to learn to control his bodily functions. This control produces a sense of accomplishment and independence in the child. According to Freud, success at this stage is dependent on the way parents approach toilet training. Parents who are supportive and offer praise for using the toilet at the appropriate time and do not scold when accidents occur, encourage a positive outcome. Freud believed that positive experiences during this stage served as the basis for people to become balanced adults. However, if parents' punish or shame a child for accidents this can result in negative outcomes for the child in later life. Phallic The third stage is the phallic stage and relates to 4-7 years of age when the penis becomes the primary object. During this stage Freud believes that the child becomes fascinated with urination and experiences pleasure from both holding and releasing. However, on the downside, the trauma that Freud believes is connected with this phase is that of castration, which makes this phase especially important for the resolution of the Oedipus complex. For ease of reading, Freud’s term Oedipus complex relates to Freud’s attempt to describe disruption in childhood with the dramatic work, Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. Apparently according to prophecy Oedipus was fated to sleep with his mother and kill his father and tries to escape this fate but, in doing so he unwittingly does the very things he was attempting to avoid. Freud stated that during this stage the child begins to deal with separation anxieties from the mother and this in turn trains the ego into reality and to control the pleasure element. However, the ego will not be fully competent until the child has passed through the latency stage. Freud states that in resolving the Oedipus complex, the child will then begin to identify with either the mother or father which in turn determines the child’s future sexual orientation. Latency The forth stage is latency and occurs from the age of 7-12 years, when children enter into school and become more concerned with peer relationships, hobbies, and other interests. The latent period is a time of exploration in which the sexual energy is still present, but is directed into other areas such as social relationships. This stage is important in the development of social and communication skills and self-confidence. Freud states this is where the sexual development ceases activity and the child begins to focus more on the reality-principle. Genital The fifth and final stage of the process is the genital stage which occurs approximately around puberty when they will become attracted to the opposite sex and want to fulfill their instinct to procreate. Where in earlier stages the focus was solely on individual needs, interest in the welfare of others grows during this stage. If the other stages have been completed successfully, the individual should now be psychologically well-balanced. Freud believed that if, during any stage, the child experienced anxiety that themes related to this stage would persist into adulthood as neurosis. Freud worked with Breuer and developed the idea that many neuroses such as phobias, paranoia and hysteria, originated as a direct result of a traumatic experience that had occurred in childhood, but which had been repressed and not dealt with. I believe this theory is very relevant in helping to understand a client’s presenting issue, as is well-known that childhood trauma can have a detrimental affect on a person’s later life if not addressed. Freud believed that the best treatment was to enable the client to recall the trauma to consciousness, confront it and deal with it. This would then enable the client to release the trauma and which would in turn remove the underlying psychological causes of the neurosis. I do agree in certain cases that this is very helpful, but everyone is an individual and this should be considered when offering therapy, as one type of therapy will suit one person, may not suit another. To take this exploration further I will now look at Freud’s psychosexual theory and the relationship to adult neurotic behaviour. For means of clarity, “Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving distress but neither delusions nor hallucinations, whereby behavior is not outside socially acceptable norms. It is also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, and thus those suffering from it are said to be neurotic”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/). Neurosis, according to Freud, comes about from the frustration of basic instincts, either because of external obstacles or some type of internal mental imbalance. Freud distinguished mental activity to exist at three levels within the mind which he termed, id, ego, and super-ego. ID is the part of the mind in which the instinctual sexual drives reside need to be satisfied; Super-ego is that part where the ‘conscience’ resides, namely, socially-acquired control mechanisms usually learnt originally by parents, which have been internalised; Ego relates to the conscious self, which has been created by the dynamic interactions between the id and the super-ego, which has the task of reconciling their conflicting demands with the requirements of external reality. It is in this sense that the mind is to be understood as a dynamic energy-system. The ID is the centre of the human’s primitive instincts and is there to fulfill desires and pleasures. Freud believed that a new born baby is the personification of the ID and the Ego develops out of the ID, as the child grows. However, the Ego is not so inward seeking and recognises that there are other important forces and the Ego acts as a censor to the ID, checking all primitive desires for immediate gratification taking in the whole picture. Freud believed that neurosis occurred as a result of a conflict between the ID and the Ego. The third and highest state is the Superego. This is the overseer just like the conscience; and, like the Id, is something of which we are not conscious of. According to Freudian theory, there exists a continuing battle between the ID and the Superego with the Ego in the center trying to maintain a balance and keep them separate. Freud’s explanation of the nature of mental health or psychological wellbeing, is the presence of a harmonious relationship between the three parts of the mind. If external forces do not provide opportunities for satisfaction of the id’s pleasure drives, if satisfaction of all, or some of the drives do not meet the morals laid down by the super-ego, then an inner conflict occurs in the mind and failure to resolve this can lead to neurosis. Now turning to the evaluation, M. Jacobs. (2010) states, “It is, of course, 120 years since Freud first began to develop his theories and techniques, and since that time nearly every therapeutic method (other than cognitive behavioural therapy) has evolved from, or in reaction to his ideas and practice”. Therefore, despite criticism it has been hugely influential in the therapeutic world. Furthermore, “modern psychotherapy seems to spring from Freud’s work, either directly or because his work made possible the discussion and study of the mind and behaviour, because it made people think that behaviour could be linked logically to theorised states of mind”. (Sanders, P. et al (2009). However, Freud's psychosexual theories have been heavily criticised as being sexist and male orientated. Freud had difficulty incorporating female desire into his theories and attempted to provide a theoretical explanation for feminine psychosexual development much later in his career that of ‘penis envy’. Also it could be argued that Freud’s theories are difficult to test scientifically, as his theory is based around the concept of libido, which is hard to measure and test. Furthermore, Freud's theory is entirely based upon case studies and not empirical research. Although some of Freud's ideas relate specifically to his culture and era and are not easily testable, it cannot be argued that Freud was excellent with the human condition, and his work still has relevance today. Even when theorists come up with different theories and ideas about how the human personality works they continue to compare their ideas with Freud's. Finally, the basis of most therapies has come about by Freud’s work. Most therapies are based on the principle of talking therapy in a relaxed atmosphere and the personal nature of the therapeutic relationship is generally accepted as important to success. Now turning to the social implications of Freud’s theory, it has been said that Freud did make a discovery throughout his work, which initially he was going to reveal, but the response which he encountered was so hostile that he masked his findings, and offered his theory of the unconscious in its place. Freud found that traumas suffered by his clients seemed to reveal that Viennese girls were often sexually abused in early childhood by older male relatives and doubt of whether these were true events soon became replaced with the theory that it was not actual childhood abuse, but childhood fantasies. However, many critics argue that Freud’s clients were not recalling childhood fantasies, but traumatic events of childhood abuse that not only had he discovered by accident, he had then knowingly hidden. Furthermore, this later took on even more controversy when contemporary Freudians combined the theory of repression with the social acceptance of child sexual abuse and as a direct result of that across the world a large number of people emerged with recovered memories of alleged childhood sexual abuse by family members, the memories of which was said had been repressed. Upon disclosure of such abuse, family members were accused and families became divided or destroyed and the term ‘False Memory Syndrome’ was born. This denounced all such memory-claims as false. Therefore, Freud’s concept of repression has received widespread criticism due to the fact that, unlike some of his contemporary followers, Freud did not consider the extension of the concept of repression to cover actual child sexual abuse, and the fact that we are not necessarily forced to choose between the views that all ‘recovered memories’ are either actual memories are, perhaps understandably, frequently lost sight of in the extremely sensitive debate. I strongly disagree with this theory at all and would not consider it. In fact, many abusers have hidden behind this False Memory theory and victims have not received the support they deserved. To conclude I have provided my understanding of Freud’s psychosexual theory and its relationship to adult neurotic behaviour, an evaluation of Freud’s psychosexual theory to include social implications bearing in mind the broader ethical perspectives and how I feel that Freud’s theory can help us to understand a client’s presenting issue. As stated previously, Freud believed that personality develops through a series of childhood stages, during which the pleasure-seeking energies of the id become focused on certain erogenous areas. This psychosexual energy, or libido, is the driving force behind the behaviour. If these psychosexual stages are completed successfully, the result is a well balanced human. If certain issues are not resolved at the appropriate stage, fixation can occur. A fixation is a persistent focus on an earlier psychosexual stage. Until this conflict is resolved, the individual will remain "stuck" in this stage. For example, a person who is fixated at the oral stage may be over-dependent on others and may seek oral stimulation through smoking, drinking, or eating”. Freud placed much emphasis on infantile sexuality and emphasized that many of our problems in later life come from our relationships with our parents, the so-called Oedipus complex. The symptoms of neurosis, according to Freud, "are essentially substitute gratifications for unfulfilled sexual wishes”. To summarise, I believe that Freud's theory of psychosexual development can help you to understand a client’s presenting issue, especially his theory of personality and how it is established and how childhood experiences can affect the personality development and continue to influence behavior later in life. I think this is very relevant as the past can have a very influential and powerful affect on people’s lives and they are not always aware of this and need help to uncover the issue. Also Freud’s five specific stages which all humans go through and that if, during any stage, the child experienced trauma this could persist into adulthood as neurosis and how with Breuer he showed that certain neurotic symptoms are caused by psychological traumas which had occurred in childhood. This is also a useful theory when considering a client’s presenting condition, as it has been proven that many neuroses are a direct affect of past trauma. Although it could be argued that a lot of theorists no longer believe that all neurosis are caused by this, or that clients have to relive the trauma to heal, it has become widely agreed that an abusive childhood and tragedy can lead to neurosis in adulthood. Unfortunately many people disregard Freud’s work if they do not agree with some or all of his theories. I do not agree with all of Freud’s ideas and theories, but I do agree with some and will consider these when I begin practicing. It was Freud after all that provided the explanation that much of our behaviour was based upon biology and how society impacts on this and when the general consensus was that male and female roles were determined by nature or God, he showed how much depended on family dynamics. REFERENCE Freud, S. (1949) Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, The Alcuin Press: Herts page 16. http://psychology.about.com/od/sigmundfreud/p/sigmund_freud.htm cited on 30 November 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurosis cited on 2 December 2010. Jacobs, M. (2010) Psychodynamic Counselling in Action, Fourth Edition (Sage Publications Ltd: London) page 2. Saunders, P. (2008) First Steps in Counselling, A Students Companion for basic introductory courses, PCCS Books, ross on wye page 37. Sanders, P. Frankland, A. and Wilkins, P. (2009) Next Steps in Counselling Practice A students’ companion for degrees, HE diplomas and vocational courses, Second edition, PCCS Books, Ross on Wye. BIBLIOGRAPHY Chrysalis handout, The Past and its Power, Principles and practical approaches to the role of our past in shaping our present 08/2010 Module 2-2 November 2010. http://psychology.about.com/od/sigmundfreud/p/sigmund_freud.htm cited on the 30 November 2010 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurosis cited on 2 December 2010. Jacobs, M. (2010) Psychodynamic Counselling in Action, Fourth Edition (Sage Publications Ltd: London). Rogers, C. (2003) Client Centred Therapy, (London: Constable and Robinson Ltd). Saunders, P. (2008) First Steps in Counselling, A Students Companion for basic introductory courses (Ross on Wye: PCCS Books). Sanders, P. Frankland, A. and Wilkins, P. (2009) Next Steps in Counselling Practice A students’ companion for degrees, HE diplomas and vocational courses, Second edition, (Ross on Wye: PCCS Books).