Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, believed that human development occurs in stages and that each stage is characterized by a particular psychosexual focus. One of the most controversial of these stages is the concept of infantile sexuality.
According to Freud, infants are not asexual beings. Rather, they have sexual energy, or libido, that is expressed in various ways. This includes what Freud referred to as "polymorphous perversity," or the idea that infants derive pleasure from various parts of their bodies and are not limited to genital stimulation.
Freud also believed that the way in which an individual resolves the conflicts of each stage of development can have a significant impact on their adult personality. In the case of infantile sexuality, this resolution occurs through the process of "sublimation," where sexual energy is redirected into other areas of life such as artistic expression or intellectual pursuits.
However, Freud's views on infantile sexuality were met with much criticism and controversy, and many of his ideas have been revised or rejected by modern psychologists. For example, Freud's theories were heavily influenced by his own biases and cultural values, and his ideas about female sexuality in particular have been criticized for being overly simplistic and dismissive of the complexity of women's experiences.
In conclusion, while Freud's concept of infantile sexuality has been influential in shaping our understanding of human development, it is important to remember that his ideas should be considered within the historical and cultural context in which they were developed and should not be accepted uncritically.
Freud's Theory Of Infantile Sexuality
Thus psychiatrists can back track one's behavior from the past decisions, situations and what they went through when growing up. Freud: A Life for Our Time, Norton, pp. For example, in eastern society where the family is not a nuclear one, unlike most western families, the Oedipus Complex should not be as Freud suggests since their are more objects to direct the love and hate to. Seeing parents engaging in sex could make children think it was a violent sadistic operation and colour their views on relationships with men and women. As early as 1896 I had already emphasized the significance of childhood for the origin of certain important phenomena connected with the sexual life, and since then I have not ceased to put into the foreground the importance of the infantile factor for sexuality. It has, however, been pointed out that no sexual latency period is found in cultures without a restrictive sexual upbringing.
Infantile sexuality and Freud's legacy: The International Journal of Psychoanalysis: Vol 97, No 3
The accumulation produces a violent muscular attraction with as much pain as pleasure and this habit is usually found in a child. However, Freud indicates clearly that his theory is derived from the clinical researches and laborious collection of data and information. The auto-erotism characteristic of the infantile sexuality also shows how the sexual instinct inherited in living things tend to restore the earlier state. He defined that a sexual object is the source of attraction, but the sexual aim is the sexual act the instinct intends. Secondly, all feelings and relations are thought to have their roots in the very same sexual impulses that manifest themselves in various forms and degrees.
Freud and his Critics. Repression could lead to conversion symptoms, that at the time could be diagnosed as neurasthenia, which is a fatigue and irritability, or hysteria, where patients have neurological problems and emotional problems, related to the repression. For many children, combining with the finding of pleasure from rubbing sensitive organ, this is one of the possible first steps towards masturbation. Freud: Biologist of the Mind. I am most impressed by the fact that you do not mention this term yourself in your information about him. For him, both attitudes are the same, but the difference is that sadism is directed outwardly and masochism is a form of sadism against oneself. This stage ties to his personality theory because the oral stage is said to be where the ego part of the mind develops.
Another telling quote is from On the Dynamics of Transference 1912 , where Freud reminds people of the sexual nature of libido. The distinction into the masculine and the feminine is not yet developed but rather as the active and the passive. In the normal evolution of sexuality the instincts of childhood are integrated into the genital sexuality of the adult. Freud believed that humans were naturally aggressive and seeking to destroy each other. It does not solve his conflict, but seeks to evade it by transforming his libidinal impulses into symptoms. Don't use plagiarized sources. He emphasized the unconscious as being a constant influence on the human behavior.
Second is the anal phase, in the third and fourth year, when the pleasurable sensations of the intestinal zone dominate. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Sexuality does not simply appear after puberty, but instead begins development starting from infancy. Freud believed that there existed two mental states the conscious and the unconscious. As the first outer cause we have the influence of seduction which prematurely treats the child as a sexual object; under conditions favoring impressions this teaches the child the gratification of the genital zones, and thus usually forces it to repeat this gratification in onanism. Thus the sexual abuse of children is found with uncanny frequency among school teachers and child attendants, simply because they have the best opportunity for it.
This is also a time when he or she gives up auto-eroticism and directs sexual energy towards other people. The best impression of the present situation of this sphere can be obtained from the journal Die Kinderfehler issued since 1896. The second essay generates and explains infantile sexuality. . As children grow older this addictive tendency can manifest in a myriad number of addictive habits like biting pencils, nails, smoking, overeating, and making sarcastic comments.
II. The Infantile Sexuality. Sigmund Freud. 1910. Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory
Erstens auf die Frage, wie sich die infantile Sexualität — als beständige Dimension der Existenz des Subjekts — in der Beziehung entfaltet und tiefgreifend von ihr beeinflusst wird. The analyses of neurotic disturbances of walking and of agoraphobia remove all doubt as to the sexual nature of the pleasure of motion. Maleness combines subject, activity and possession of the penis; femaleness takes over object and passivity. London: Hogarth Press, p. The subject of sexuality, in truth, is in almost every book and paper that Freud ever wrote.
The answer is, in a general way we cannot promise to achieve it. These studies made possible that there is not moments of seduction in childhood but there is natural sexuality within us even before sexual maturity. The genital or phallic phase corresponds to the period of three and a half to six years old. Therefore, consciousness and unconscious are extremely. Chicago: Open Court, pp. Freud's psychosexual theory of development. The excessive shaming, spoiling, ignorance of sexuality in parenting and schooling, leads to the neuroticism of adolescence and adulthood.
