In: Psychology
How is childhood behavior linked to adult problems?
Childhood is an essential period of time in life as childhood years are the building years. Most of our personality and behaviors are shaped during these years. Also, adulthood can largely be a reflection of one's childhood. This implies that if an individual had issues and conflicts that remained unresolved during childhood, these can manifest into problematic behaviors in the adulthood years.
One very popular perspective of psychology, the Psychoanalytic perspective put forth by Sigmund Freud suggests that problems in adult life is mainly because of the unresolved issues of childhood. Freud believed that issues that arise later in life are due to unsuccessful progression through the psychosexual stages in childhood years. Freud also developed two therapies around this concept namely; free association and dream interpretation. In free association, the client is made to lie down on a couch and asked to speak out whatever thoughts he/she has. In dream interpretation, the client is expected to recall their dreams. The major focus of both the therapies is to bring the conflicts of the past back to consciousness from the unconscious mind.
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