Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality This theory was developed by Sigmund Freud. Freud maintained that all of us were under the control of two instincts, Eros, she life instinct and Thanatos, the death instinct. For all of the days of our lives, the life instinct neutralizes the death instinct. He maintained that aggression was the death instinct turned outward. If we didn? t aggress against others we would harm ourselves. This aspect of his theory was disputed by many including Einstein.
The energy of the life instinct was called Eros. Anything that is associated with building, creating, uplifting, happiness was an aspect of Eros o the Life Instinct. The psychic energy of the life instinct was called Libido. Libido has the ability to attach itself to parts of the body. The parts of the body to which Libido attaches itself are called erogenous zones. These zones usually composed of soft membranous tissue cause a sense of pleasure when it is rubbed or touched.
Freud maintained that the libido attached itself first to the area around the mouth, then to the anus, then to the immature genitals. e The attachments of libido to erogenous zones correspond to the stages of psychosexual development. The first stage is the Oral Stage, the second is the Anal Stage, the third is the Phallic Stage, the fifth stage is known as the Latency stage. During this stage the libido is dormant and there is little psychosexual development. The final state is the Genital stage, the stage of mature sexual development, when the libido can attach itself to another body and mature sexual gratification may be obtained. If the child obtains an optimum amount of gratification at each stage the libido moves on to the next stage and the child is ready for that stage of development.
The Term Paper on Human life development
Introduction Growth refers to an increase in size, such as changes in an individual’s body for example size, weight, height and shape. Development usually comes in stages, as in the changes in the complexity of an individual and a rise in skills or knowledge, such as learning how to walk. Conception to birth (0-9 months) P1) The internal development is the development of the embryo in the mothers ...
If the child obtains too little or too much gratification at any stage then some of the libido remains at that stage and we say the individual has become fixated at that stage. This means that the individual continues to seek gratification for that stage long after it may be appropriate. Personality develops as a consequence of the fixation. gsgfdgdfg.
