How has the unconscious thought of sex and violence influence our reality - Research Paper Example

How has the unconscious thought of sex and violence influence our reality? Sigmund Freud theories of human motivation and drive have developed throughout his life; he described instincts that are largely attributable to human behavior. The two major theories that he found out to largely influence human behavior include the sexual desires (ethos) and desire for destructiveness (Thanatos). The sexual desires are also known as life instincts while the destructive desires are known as death instincts, all other types of instincts largely fall into one of these categories.

Freud in his psychoanalytic theories stated that libido, which is the sex drive in human beings, is responsible for survival and sexual instincts. The level of development of an individual at each stage makes libido focused on a specific area which if properly managed leads to development of a normal and healthy adults. The first stage, which is the oral phase, is the phase whereby a child main mode of interaction is through the oral cavity, a child gets pleasure from oral activities like suckling.

Individuals who have issues with their dependency and aggression had a problem in this stage; in addition, eating disorders, nail biting and finger sucking are other disorders that are associated with a fixation in this stage. The second phase of psychosexual development is the anal stage where an individual learns to control his bladder and bowel movement, a conflict in this stage causes individuals to develop a messy, wasteful and destructive personality, in addition, forcing a child to learn bowel movement causes a child to have a rigid, obsessive, orderly and stringent personality.

At the phallic stage the focus of libido is the genitals, individuals start to discover their differences with people of the opposite gender. At this stage, male children start seeing their father as a rival towards their mothers’ attention and girls start seeing mothers as rivals towards their mothers’ attention. In girls Freud described the condition as penis envy where the female gender wishes to belong to the male gender, according to this theory, penis envy is the main reason why some women are not very comfortable being women.

In the dormant phase, where the libido drive is suppressed as the vigor is engaged to other places that include pursuit of education and group relations which are important in the development of self confidence and communication skills. During the final stage of psychosexual development, individuals develop a strong sexual attraction towards people of the opposite sex, individuals who are at their puberty tend to watch pornographic materials or engage in deviant sexual behaviors such as masturbation and rape if the stage is not well managed.

In his book beyond the pleasure principle, Sigmund Freud theorizes that the goal of all life is death and that people have an unconscious desire for death, which leads people to have a self-destructive behavior. When this self-destructive behavior is directed externally, it is violence or aggression. The death instinct makes human beings strive towards the inorganic state and it does not appear on its own as it is driven by repetitions and in some cases a combination with the sexual drive. This desire however is compressed by life instincts and some aspects of libido to a later time in one’s life.

The desire towards death in form of violence is in most cases driven by the reality principle where individuals are responding to provocation in the external environment (Geyskens and Haute, 35). This idea was supported by Fechner’s stability principle, which stated that the dominating tendency of mental life is to reduce, keep constant or to remove internal tension resulting from a specific stimulus. Violence, which is an external manifestation of the death instinct, is in most cases, as described by Ande Green as the work of the negative.

Death instinct, according to Jacques Lacan is beyond the pleasure principle and is more connected to reality than the pleasure principle; he identifies death as a necessary condition for an individual to take up the natural phenomenon of instincts, which would in turn influence the ethical dimensions that the individual would take. Some critics of the death instincts as influencing outward aggression and violence argued that psychic conflict, which is the idea behind the field of psychoanalysis could not be based on lived experiences alone as death was found to be inherent in an individual from the onset and not secondary internalized.

The two theories as brought forward by psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud influences some of the current behaviors that individuals adopt. For instance, the current increase in deviant sexual behaviors and watching of pornographic films can be attributed to fixations in the process of psychosexual development, in addition, increase in violence according to Freudian death drive theory, death can be attributed to the desire by individuals to release internal tension and human desire towards the inorganic state.

Works cited Geyskens, Tomas, and Haute, Philippe . From Death Instinct to Attachment Theory: The Primacy of the Child in Freud, Klein and Hermann. New York: Other Press, 2007. Print.