Psychoanalytic Theory of Child

Development | Psychology
Psychoanalytic theory is the oldest and most controversial of the theories
of development. The controversy stems from the provocative ideas of its
originator, the Viennese neurologist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Despite the
controversy, Freud's ideas have had identifiable impact on the life of virtually
every individual born in Western culture in this century. Although many
scholars have contributed to the development of psychoanalytic theory, we
will limit our discussion to Freud's theory and the important elaboration and
extension of his work by Erik Erikson.

Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory

Freud was born in Freiberg, Moravia, in 1856 and lived most of his life in
Vienna, Austria. He died in England in 1939, two years after fleeing the
German occupation. Trained as a neurologist, Freud became interested in
patients who were suffering from mental disorders. At the time, we knew very

little about the  causes of mental illness, and treatment was

largely a matter of forced confinement. Consistent with his medical training,
Freud hoped to identify brain abnormalities that would account for his patients'
disturbed behavior, but many of their symptoms--physical pain, paralysis, and
loss of motor control and memory--had no identifiable physiological base.
Freud's success using hypnosis to relieve some his patients' symptoms
convinced him that psychological processes rather
than physiological processes were the cause of mental illness (Breuer &
Freud, 1895). Moreover, he speculated that the basis of mental illness could
be found in the early development of the child--particularly during the first five
years of life.

The Structure of Personality 

Freud (1923) proposed that, from birth, the individual is endowed with
biologically-based sexual and aggressive instincts that unconsciously
motivate everything humans think, say, or do throughout their lives. The
instincts are expressed in the form of libido--a form of energy which drives
all thinking and behavior. Libido is stored in the id, a place in the mind that
Freud called the the "reservoir of libido" (Freud, 1923, p.53). The id may be
thought of as a storage battery that has a relentless need to discharge its
energy from the moment of birth. Discharge takes the form of investments of
libido in activities and objects that afford pleasure by reducing tension. We
may invest libido in reality or in fantasy; thus dreams can be a source of great
pleasure. All of the activities of the id are unconscious; thus we are all
unaware of our instincts and their profound and virtually irresistible effects on
our behavior.

The process of investment undergoes important developmental change.

Infants invest libido according to the pleasure principle, an approach that
demands instant gratification. Infants find this gratification at their mothers'
breast. However, parents soon begin to socialize their infants to delay
gratification, tolerate frustration, and seek pleasure in more socially competent
ways. Freud believed that these demands promote the development of
the ego, the component of personality that uses conscious perception and
intelligence to find pleasure in a world where needs are not typically met on
demand. Because the ego recognizes the frustrations inherent in living in the
real world, it is said to function on the basis of the reality principle.

The third and final component of the personality, the superego, emerges

rather suddenly during the fifth or sixth year of life. The superego is the seat of
morality. It has two distinct components: The conscience is a collection of
beliefs, attitudes, and rules for behavior that function as an internal standard
for the appropriateness of behavior. The ego ideal is an internalized image
of distinctly human form that the child (and later the adult) unconsciously
strives to become. The problem is that there is nothing necessarily "ideal"
about the ego ideal; its features may be positive or negative or both.

The combination of beliefs, rules, and images that constitute the superego are
not taught to the child, nor are they learned as one would memorize a list of
rules at school. The superego is formed by identification, a special form of
learning in which the characteristics of significant persons--in this case, the
same-sex parent and to a lesser extent the opposite-sex parent--are
incorporated into the child's personality (Freud, 1923).

Psychodynamics 
Freud suggested that the id, ego, and superego interact in a dynamic system.
When the ego attempts to satisfy the id's insatiable needs, it is destined to fail
due to the difficulty of finding love and hate objects in civilized society. The
ego's failure results in unconscious anxiety, which undermines the ego's
ability to function. Conversely, if the ego does its job too well, rules or ideals in
the superego are violated, resulting in unconscious guilt. Guilt, like
anxiety, impairs the functioning of the ego. The ego, therefore, exists
"between a rock and a hard place," in a persistent state of internal stress and
conflict.

Freud suggested that while the ego is vulnerable to the ravages of guilt and
anxiety, it can fight back with defense mechanisms, unconscious mental
strategies that provide temporary relieffrom anxiety and guilt. He described
several defense mechanisms and their effects: Repression forces libido back
into the id, stifling all desire for an object. Denial conveniently wipes
outmemories of traumatic events. Rationalization reduces the desire for an
object by depreciating its value (the proverbial "sour grapes"). While an
individual may temporarily get off the hook by using defense mechanisms, the
risk is in their overuse. For instance, while denial can fend off anxiety or guilt,
persistent denial distorts a person's view of reality, laying the foundation for
mental illness.

Psychosexual Development 
Freud believed that personality emerges gradually over the first five to six
years of life in a progression of psychosexual stages of development.
Each stage is defined by the presence of libido in a particular part (or zone) of
the body. Libido's presence creates an erogenous zone that is highly
sensitive to sexual stimulation and a focus of pleasure.

During the oral stage (the first 18 months of life), pleasure is derived from

variations on sucking behavior. The stage ends when the infant is "weaned"
from sucking to sipping. During the anal stage, the child experiences
pleasure in the act of defecation. The stage ends when the child is toilet
trained. Somewhere between the fourth and fifth years of life, the libido again
shifts location to the genitals, marking the beginning of the phallic stage.
Freud believed that the child selects the opposite-sex parent as a love object
during this stage--a choice that creates considerable emotional conflict within
the child and within the family. This so-called Oedipal complex (Electra
Complex in females) is resolved when the child relinquishes his desire for the
parent and internalizes a superego by identifying with the same-sex parent.

Freud believed that emotional upheavals of the phallic stage are followed by
massive repression of sexual and aggressive drives during middle childhood,
a stage he called latency. But latency is merely the calm before the storm. In
the final stage, the genital stage, the young adolescent experiences a
rebirth of sexual and aggressive strivings and the return of unresolved
conflicts from earlier stages. The genital stage begins in adolescence and
extends through adulthood.

Freud speculated that trauma--extreme experiences of anxiety during the

first five years of life--may cause the individual to be permanently vulnerable
to psychological maladjustment. In fact, he traced particular forms of
disturbance directly to specific traumatic events during the oral, anal, and
phallic stages. For example, infants who are weaned too abruptly may remain
dependent on others throughout their lives and are prone to develop eating
disorders in adolescence. Toddlers who are either physically punished or
overindulged by their parents during toilet training may become rigid,
compulsive adults. Children who fail to resolve the intense emotional conflicts
during the phallic stage may have permanent problems relating to others.

In this article we will discuss about the stages and applications

of psychoanalytic theory of child development.
Stages of Psychoanalytic Theory:
i. Sigmund Freud’s Psychosexual Stages:
Freud believed our most basic drive is the sex drive. If you
believe that biologically speaking the goal of our lives is to
pass on our genes, then you might agree with Freud that the
sex drive is central to everything else. He outlined five stages
in child and adolescent development, which he called
psychosexual stages.
At each of these stages, sexual energy is invested in a different
part of the body, and gratification of the urges associated with
those areas of the body is particularly pleasurable. He labelled
these stages the oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital stages.
He believed that the way in which gratification of urges is
handled during each of these stages determines the nature of
an adult’s personality and character.
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Disturbances in any of the stages can result in psychological
disturbance in adulthood. We will describe these stages and
Freud’s ideas about the effects later in life if development
daring these stages does not go well.
The oral stage lasts from birth to about 18 months of age. The
zone of pleasure is the mouth. A baby for whom taking in food
is not pleasurable might not survive. If you give a 6-month-old
baby a toy, what is the first thing she is likely to do? Toy
makers are aware that children are likely to put anything in
their mouths and warn us against giving them toys with small
parts that can cause choking.
Freud developed the idea that someone can get “stuck” or
fixated in one of the first three psychosexual stages of early
childhood. That person will then exhibit characteristics of that
stage later in life. For example, an individual who is fixated in
the oral stage may want to continue to try to satisfy his oral
urges by overeating or smoking.
Many of us have some remnants of this stage as we chew on
our fingers or pencils; however, a fixation is really only a
concern when it interferes with adaptive functioning in some
critical way.
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The anal stage lasts from 18 months to 3 years. At this age the
pleasure center moves to the anus, and issues of toilet training
become central. Although many of us squirm to think of the
anus as a pleasure center, we have only to listen to the “poopy
talk” of young children to see the hilarity it brings about. The
task of the child at this age is to learn to control his bodily
urges to conform to society’s expectations.
A person who is fixated at this stage may become over
controlled as an adult. Everything must be in its proper place
to an extreme degree. Conversely, someone might become
“anal explosive,” creating “messes” wherever he goes.
The phallic stage lasts from 3 to 6 years of age. At this stage
Freud believed that the paths followed by boys and girls
diverge in ways that have been extremely controversial. We
will first look at the path for boys. A boy’s pleasure becomes
focused on the penis. Many parents must patiently explain to
their little boy that he cannot keep his hand in his pants while
out in company.
Later during this stage the boy develops what Freud called the
Oedipus complex, named after the character from Greek
mythology that unknowingly killed his own father and
married his mother. The boy focuses all his affections on his
mother and becomes angry at his father, who stands in the
way of the child’s sole possession of her.
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However, in the normal course of events, the boy becomes
uncomfortable with this anger at his father. Rather than
experiencing the anger, he projects the feeling onto his father
and fears that his father is angry at him. In this stage when he
is focused on his own penis, the retribution he imagines from
his father is that he will cut off the boy’s penis.
Consequently, the boy develops what Freud called castration
anxiety. In order to avoid this fate, the boy gives up his dream
of marrying his mother and decides to become like or identify
with his father. A man who does not resolve the Oedipus
complex may become fixated in this stage.
He may find rivalry or competition with other men
overwhelming, as he doubts his ability to measure up to
others. He may also find it difficult to have intimate relations
with women, as they remind him of forbidden impulses
toward his mother.
For girls, the picture is much more complicated and
controversial, even for therapists who practice psychoanalysis.
In the phallic stage, Freud believed that girls come to believe
that they once had a penis and that it was cut off, leaving them
with penis envy. Girls go through a similar complex, called the
Electra complex, in which they want to marry their fathers
and do away with their mothers.
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Freud believed that girls must learn to identify with their
mothers, whom they see as damaged in the same way that
they themselves are. The only way in which they will achieve a
sense of wholeness is when they produce a penis by having a
baby boy. Freud believed that girls must accept their passive,
receptive nature and those who do not adequately resolve the
Electra complex might try to overcome their feelings of
inferiority by being too assertive and masculine.
The critique of Freud’s view of female development has been
fierce, even from the early days of the development of
psychoanalytic theory. Female psychoanalysts have argued
that this explanation of female development has more to do
with a little boy’s view of girls than the girl’s view of herself.
They also have argued that boys and men are just as jealous of
women’s ability to give birth as girls are of a boy’s penis.
Feminist Gloria Steinem satirized Freud’s treatment of
women by proposing a version of psychoanalytic theory
developed by a fictional “Phyllis Freud,” based on womb and
breast envy rather than penis envy.
The latency stage occurs between 6 and 12 years of age. Latent
means inactive, and Freud believed that during this time the
sex drive goes underground. Children move from their
fantasies in the phallic period of marrying their parent to a
new realization that they must take the long road toward
learning to become a grown-up.
The sex drive provides energy for the learning that must take
place but is not expressed overtly. Children transfer their
interest from parents to peers. At this age children who had
cross-sex friendships often relinquish them as boys and girls
learn the meaning of “cooties” and each sex professes disgust
for the other.
This separation of the sexes begins to change at age 12, when
young adolescents enter the genital stage. At this point, sexual
energy is focused on the genital area, and true sexual interest
occurs between peers.
ii. Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages:
Many of the people who initially studied and worked with
Freud have gone on to change psychoanalytic theory in
significant ways. Erik Homburger Erikson is one of the most
influential. Erikson focused more on issues of the ego rather
than the id. Ego means “I” or “self,” and Erikson’s major focus
was on the development of identity.
He described a series of stages based on issues that arise
during the process of psychosocial development. Erikson
describes psychosocial stages because these issues are rooted
in social experiences that are typical of each stage of
development rather than in sexual urges. At each age he
believed that there is a central conflict to be resolved and the
way in which we resolve that conflict lays the groundwork for
the next stages of our development.
For example, Erikson believed that infants have to establish
trust in the world around them, while toddlers have to
struggle with developing autonomy, or a level of independence
from their parents.
The other important aspect of Erikson’s theory is that he
believed that development does not stop in adolescence. He
went beyond Freud’s stages to add three stages of adulthood.
He was the first theorist to acknowledge that we continue to
grow and develop throughout our lives.
Modern Applications of Psychoanalytic Theory:
Although psychoanalytic theory has been controversial, ideas
that come from psychoanalytic theory are still very influential,
particularly in relation to the study of the development of
mental and emotional disorders, a field known as
developmental psychopathology.
Many psychotherapists continue to use therapy that is
designed to uncover inner conflicts from earlier life
experiences, especially early trauma, as the basis for current
psychological symptoms. A number of modern theories and
therapeutic approaches also have their roots in concepts taken
from psychoanalytic theory.
If you take advanced courses in psychology, you are likely to
learn more about some of these approaches. Evidence from
other types of research that follow the scientific method has
yielded mixed results. Some ideas have been supported by
research, and others have not.
Erikson’s ideas about the effect of social experiences on the
development of personality throughout the life span have
remained an important influence in the field of child
development. A number of his ideas have influenced
contemporary child care practices and our understanding of
how development occurs as a series of interrelated
experiences.
For instance, we urge new parents to be sensitive and
responsive to their infants as a way to establish a sense of
trust, as Erikson described. We better understand the
challenge of adolescence when we see it as a struggle to
establish a coherent sense of individual identity.
These concepts have also been used to help in the treatment of
children with emotional disturbances by providing a
framework for understanding the central issues to be dealt
with at different ages.