Erikson and Post-Freudian Theory - Research Paper Example

 Erikson and Post- Freudian Theory According to Conn (1998), Freud moved away from the scientific model of biological instincts to an ego-oriented approach. More emphasis was put on the unconscious self, ego, than on the conscious self. Self identity revolves around the subject I and the object me. Kirschner (1996) argues that both the Freudian and Post- Freudian approaches to personality remain attractive to many psychiatry clinicians, scholars, and laypersons. Self-reliance and self-direction are Anglo-American ideal prescribed patterns of self reflection and social interaction. The ‘me’ is the product of personal, especially interpersonal experience. It is constituted by consciousness and gives the personal history its meaning and value. As the self discovers and gives meaning of the world, it constitutes itself in a certain shape and gives itself some character. The self is the person created through discoveries, decisions and personal deeds. The ego is the unconscious part of the self and drives towards integration, organization, and meaning. Erikson was a German psychological theorist born in 1902 and did most his studies on post Freudian era between 1930s and 1950s according to Suchitra (2002). In his childhood, he struggled with his personal identity. He did not know his biological father, and he grew up using his step father’s name. His identity conflict was worsened by the fact that he was brought up under Jewish faith, though he was blond and blue-eyed as stated by Crunden (2011). To prove that personal identity depended on him, he adopted the name Erikson. Identity issues had a great impact during his life and formed the basis of his developmental stage theory. Anna Freud was his teacher and mentor. He attended art schools in Germany and travelled to Italy in search of his own identity. He returned to Germany as a teacher and underwent psychoanalysis with Anna. These analysis sessions expanded his interest from art and teaching to psychoanalysis. The idea of personal identity formed the pivot of his theories. The life cycle of human development is dependent on every development stage. The development process, epigenesist, is a sequence of stages and laws in relating the growing parts. Every element must arise at the stipulated time, else development will be jeopardized. Normal development is required for a healthy psychological development. Erikson’s theories were greatly influenced by Freudian training as well as his quest for personal identity. They were aimed at expanding Freud’s theories on child development. He believed that development was a continuous process throughout a person’s lifetime. He referred to his theory as psychosocial because it involved the interaction of the mind and relationships. He believed behavior and personality were dependent on the environment the child was introduced to after birth especially during childhood as explained by Erikson (1995). His research was carried out among human societies of the Native American communities. Children have to deal with internal emotional conflict in their growth process. For proper development, the individual must balance the two dispositions characteristic of every stage. There are eight development stages in his theory according to Keith (2001). In infancy, children have to make a decision of whether or not to trust their care takers. This decision of trust prepares the kids for conflict in the next stage. If they learn mistrust, the consequences affect them for the rest of their lives, and they eventually become maladjusted adults. This trust comes from maternal love and care. Regular feeding contributes to this trust. They also learn to trust themselves and their own bodies when given the freedom to explore their environment. Unhealthy experiences during this stage result to mistrust of time and time confusion. Repeated delay and irregular satisfaction of infant needs cause this confusion. However, the time confusion can be altered in adolescence. The child is convicted what he/she receives constitute their identity. Toddlers learn autonomy over their biological body functions such as walking, toilet training, and muscular control. They are faced with a crisis of balancing between autonomy, shame, and doubt. They experience the autonomy of free choice and develop ability and capacity to experience themselves as own entities. Autonomy battles are exhibited in stubbornness, temperament, and agreements. The child learns self control. The child learns to hold or let go of body waste irrespective of the parents’ wishes. Proper training creates the sense of mastery and personal decision making. Restrictions and inability of the parents to cope with budding result to shame, self-doubt, and meek compliance. These autonomy issues affect the autonomy in adolescence as stated by Feist (2006). Preschool kids deal with exploration, discovery, play, and adventure. Family relationship and bonding is enhanced. They struggle between initiative and guilt. Intrusion into the world is through activity, curiosity, and exploration. The child develops initiative, goal setting, and activities are guided by purpose. Language develops at this stage. This intrusion and experimentation develops the sexual-image of the child. Obstacles in exploration and initiative may cause fear, inhibition, and role fixation. School children relate with teachers, neighbors, friends, and the school environment. They learn and experience achievement and accomplishment. The child learns and masters basic skills needed in the society. They learn to win approval, recognition, and success. Failure deprives the child the pride of success and may cause a feeling of inferiority. Erikson (1968) argues that, adolescents interact with peers, groups, and have to resolve identity, direction, and becoming grownups. They assess individual strengths and weaknesses and develop a way of coping with them. They question their origin and their personal identity as they search for a sense of continuity. The past, present, and future are unified and help form their identity. They require peer group recognition and involvement, which provide an avenue for social feedback Young adults relate with lovers, friends, and work mates. They engage in intimate relationships, employment and socializing with friends. This involves establishing emotional closeness to other people for lasting relationships. Ego identity helps create genuine and long lasting intimacy by fusing the identities of two people. This must be established before marriage for the family to last for a long time. Lack of relationships causes isolation and loneliness. Uncertainties in identity lead to relationships without emotional attachment. Mid adults have children, and have to contribute to the community. The community looks up to them to give back to it. This is the productive stage of human beings. Generativity refers to productive creativity in professional and vocational contributions to the society. Lack of achievements lead to stagnation, and there is no further development. It implies a routine repetition of vocational activities and repetition of social relationships stereotypically. The individual becomes self absorbed and expects to be indulged. Late adulthood deals with the society, the world and reflects over the whole life and integrates with earlier states according to Kivnick (1998). They consider their life achievements and the meaning and purpose of life. This stage has the conflict of appreciating past life experiences or becoming bitter and resentful of previous experiences. Integrity is brought about by success of the previous seven stages of life. There is independence, autonomy, and maturity compared to dependency of childhood. Discontentment of one’s life and fear of death characterize the disintegration of old age and bring about despair and disgust. Every stage has unique characteristics. Infants deal with trust, toddlers learn to be autonomous or doubt themselves, young children learn to take initiative or feel inadequate, and school children experience industry or inferiority. Adolescents have to deal with identity issues brought about by self confusion or a strong sense of who they are. Adults struggle with intimacy, productivity, and reflection over their lives. He suggested that psychiatrists can help maladjusted adults solve childhood issues as part of their treatment. The identity issues of historical figures such as Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, and Thomas Jefferson were also studied during his research. The aim of these psycho-historical studies was the identification of identity crisis with respect to their national identity issues as public figures. The identity crisis of personal life and contemporary crisis in the historical development are inseparable and define each other. The word ‘crisis’ represents the emotional turmoil and opportunities in the development and identification stages. The specific quality of personal identity varies from culture to culture, but the development process has common characteristics in all cultures (Douvan, 1997). True personal identity is the psychological connection between childhood and adulthood. Recognition of personal achievements and accomplishments helps children develop a strong and healthy ego identity. These crisis or conflicts are never solved completely and are more pronounced at different stages. Ego identity is not a static establishment, but a continuously developed self realization within the social reality. According to Freud, the ego is developed in healthy people and reins over the id and had tenuous control. However, the ego might be overwhelmed by an eruption of the id impulses at any time. Erikson argued that the ego is a positive force and is responsible to the creation of self identity I. The ego is the ability of a person to unify experiences and actions in an adaptive way. It has three aspects: the body ego is experiences with our bodies and presents the physical self as different for every person. The ego ideal is a comparison between the personal image and the established ideal. It produces the feeling of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the physical self and the entire personal identity. The ego identity is influenced by the personal image in the various social roles played. The society has a great impact on the ego and child development. The eight development stages contribute to the development of the ego and personal identity. The conflict involved with every development stage produces an ego strength called the basic strength. Too little basic strength results in core pathology for that stage. The core pathology is the opposite of the basic strength. The past, present and anticipated events and conflicts shape ego identity. Identity crisis is a characteristic of personality particularly beyond adolescence. It is a turning point and a crucial period due to increased vulnerability and heightened potential as explained by Bray, Adams& Dobson (1988). Ego identity is redefined when major roles are changed. This occurs when college freshmen leave home; graduates get their first job, when people get married, parenthood, divorce, death of a partner, and retirement. Coping with these changes depends on past degree of success mastered during the adolescence identity crisis. Failure in early stages results to self doubt and sense of futility, which contribute to personal confusion and estrangement in adolescence. This confusion causes failure in conflict resolution and becomes part of personal identity issue. Personal identity is a continuous process and depends on a sequence of development stages. Each stage has its own unique characteristics and has great significance in creating self image. Adolescence stage is the most significant. An adolescent is faced with questions about his origin and the future, and answering them is essential for group integration. Personal identity is crucial as individual try to merge with the society and acquire identification and recognition by peers. They strive to define their vocational roles and positions. Puberty is characterized by body changes and sexual awareness. These changes are different and may cause discontinuity with childhood. The ego of a person helps map self image relative to others, social roles, and the entire self identity. Personal achievements and success in every stage have positive effects and raise the ego of an individual. Failure may result to withdrawal, resentment, hatred, and mistrust. Identity crisis experienced in adolescence is a turning point for potential and vulnerability. References Bray, C.L., Adams, G.R., & Dobson, W.R. (1988). Identity formation and Social Relations During Late Adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence,17, 173-187. Conn, W. E. (1998). The desiring self: Rooting pastoral counseling and spiritual direction in self-transcendence. New York: Paulist Press. Crunden, R. M. (2011). Freud, Erikson, and the Historian: A Bibliographical Survey. Canadian Review of American Studies,4, 48-64. Douvan, E. (1997). Erik Erikson: Critical Times, Critical Theory. Child Psychiatry and Human development, 28, 15-21. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton. Erikson, E. H. (1995). Childhood and society. London: Vintage. Feist, J., & Feist, G. J. (2006). Theories of personality. Boston, Mass: McGraw-Hill. Keith, E. R. (2001). Psychosocial Development. William R Lee& NVC consulting. Kirschner, S. R. (1996). Religious and romantic origins of psychoanalysis: Individuation and integration in post-Freudian theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kivnick, H. Q.. (1998). Through the life cycle: Psychosocial thoughts on old age. In G. H. Pollock & S. I. Greenspan (Eds.), The course of life: Vol. 7. Completing the journey (pp. 118-134). Suchitra, R. (2002). Erik Erikson's Theory of Development: A Teacher's Observations. Journal of the Krishnamurti schools, 6. Read More