Question

Pertaining to the unconcious, psychosexual stages of development, and structure of personality: Explain what you think is valid or invalid about his understanding of each concept. You are welcome to agree or disagree with his views but it is important that you attempt to bring in relevant and current research to substantiate your agreement or disagreement.

Answer 1

Hello!

Sigmund Freud came up with the concept of psychosexual stages of development containing about 5 stages and each stages describing certain age group and it's impact on long term life, Below are the mentioned stages;

1.Oral stage :0-1.5 years of age .

2.Anal stage :1.5 - 3years of age .

3.Phallic stage :3-5 years of age.

4.Latency stage :5-12 years of age .

5.Genital stage. :12-adulthood .

The structure of personality according to Freud consists of three interworking parts :the ID, the ego,and the super ego.

As mentioned above the stages suggest that children go through a series of psychosexual stages that lead to the development of adult personality and he also suggested that personality develops over the course of Childhood while this theory is well known during Freud's time and in modern psychology , it is quiet controversial and here is my take on this concept .

I personally feel it does not do complete justice , where Freud seems to be addressing a few agreeable concepts on the other hand it looks like the importance is only given to physical pleasure or sex and it is not always required for someone to complete the necessary developmental process and when this does not happen it results in a mental condition requiring a psychoanalysis to achieve proper functioning as Freud says that any child passing through these stages may encounter unresolved conflicts between physical drives and social expectation may arise ,it is during these 5 stages of development that the experiences are filtered through the 3 levels of human mind the ID, super ego, ego.

The super ego functions at a conscious level,it is at this level that parental guidance is weighed against personal pleasure and gain .

Ego means a sense of self ,it may also mean a set of psychic function such as judgement ,tolerance, control,planning , defence ,memory ,intellectual functuoning .

ID it's like the ID is constantly fighting to have our way in everything we undertake or do .

Conclusion :

I now come to the opinion or conclude this that Freud's psychosexual theory only can explain and predict only some of human development .In my opinion a few stages like the Phallic stage emphasises too much on sex .I feel this theory is too generalized. This theory was generalized by Freud based on his patients and researches I don't quiet know if this will be applicable to modern times and on people like you and me ,his theory also lacks scientific evidence and talking about the structure of personality there are many mental illness that consider placing the ID in the forefront. For instance there are those who live their life on a Narcissistic level and then there are anti.social personalities and according to Freud it is the neurotic person that is most affected by his principles .

On the positive note I would say that it presents with a structure and provides time to resolve issues and having said that on the negative side there is always expressed concern over the cost .

Overall it can be said that psychosexual stages of development and structure of personality cannot be completely agreed upon and at the same time it also can't be said that it is completely useless and wrong ,hence I'm Ambivalent about this topic as it has both it's pro's and con's and it cannot to completely agreed or disagreed .

Thankyou ,hope this helped!